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New York Times
23-07-2025
- New York Times
D.A. Who Led Etan Patz Case Says Conviction Reversal Came as a Shock
Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who as Manhattan district attorney oversaw two trials in the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, said Tuesday that a federal court's reversal of the murder and kidnapping conviction in the case 'came out of left field for me.' The verdict in Etan's 1979 killing, which came after more than 30 years of investigation and prosecution, appeared to end a notorious case that transfixed New York City and the nation. But on Monday, a three-judge panel overturned the conviction, ordering that the defendant, Pedro Hernandez, be given a new trial within a 'reasonable period,' or be released from his 25-year-to-life prison sentence. Mr. Vance's case had depended heavily on several confessions by Mr. Hernandez, who has a history of mental illness. The first came before Mr. Hernandez was informed of his constitutional right to remain silent; another, which was videotaped, came shortly after. The trial judge, the appeals court found, did not appropriately instruct the jury in response to its question about the confessions. Mr. Vance said he respected the decision by the federal judges who serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, but he was 'surprised and saddened for the Patz family.' 'I still believe the decision to bring the case was absolutely the right decision,' he said, adding, 'as the D.A. I was certainly convinced myself that Pedro Hernandez killed Etan Patz, and I think that today.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Telegraph
21-07-2025
- Telegraph
Man convicted of killing Etan Patz could be freed after court ruling
The man convicted of killing a six-year-old boy in Manhattan in 1979 should be freed or retried, a court has ruled. Pedro Hernandez, who was convicted of killing Etan Patz in 2017 after a decades-long police investigation, has had his guilty verdict overturned. A federal appeals court took issue with how a jury note was handled during Hernandez's second trial in 2017. His first, in 2015, ended with a deadlocked jury. Hernandez has been serving a life sentence since his conviction. Etan disappeared on the first day he was allowed to walk alone to his school bus stop. Hernandez was a teenager working at a convenience shop in Etan's Manhattan neighbourhood at the time. The shop clerk, from Maple Shade, New Jersey, later confessed to choking Etan. His lawyers insist that he was mentally ill, and his confession was false. Etan was among the first missing children pictured on milk cartons. The anniversary of his disappearance, May 25, was designated as national missing children's day by Ronald Reagan in 1983. 'Through this painful and utterly horrific real-life story, we came to realise how easily our children could disappear,' said Manhattan district attorney Cyrus R Vance Jr, a Democrat who made a 2009 campaign promise to revisit the case if elected.
