Latest news with #federalappealscourt
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
White House Wins Court Ruling to Exclude the Associated Press
A federal appeals court will allow President Donald Trump to continue to block news outlets from covering him in 'restricted' spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One based on their editorial decisions. In a one-page order on Tuesday, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit left in place an earlier decision that let White House officials exclude the Associated Press from a rotating pool of reporters and photographers who cover the president's daily movements while an underlying legal fight goes forward.
Fox News
21 hours ago
- Fox News
Court overturns conviction, orders new trial of man convicted in 1979 Etan Patz murder
A federal appeals court overturned a guilty verdict in the case of a man convicted in the 1979 killing of 6-year-old Etan Patz in New York City, which could be considered one of the most notorious missing child cases in the country. Pedro Hernandez was convicted in February 2017 of killing Etan. The conviction came just five years after Hernandez confessed to police that he lured the boy into the basement of the convenience store he worked at, using soda. Prosecutors said Hernandez choked Etan, stuffed his body into a plastic garbage bag hidden inside a box, and took it out with the trash. Hernandez was sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars in April 2017. But on Monday, a federal appeals court overturned the conviction because of how the trial judge handled a note from the jury during Hernandez's second trial, which took place in 2017 — the first trial took place in 2015 and ended in a jury deadlock. The appeals court found that the trial judge in 2017 gave "clearly wrong" and "manifestly prejudicial" instructions to the jury in response to a question about the suspect's confessions to police. During jury deliberations, the jury asked the judge whether, if it deemed invalid a confession Hernandez made before being advised of his Miranda rights to remain silent, it must also disregard a subsequent confession after those warnings were given. The judge told the jury no, but the appeals court said that answer was incorrect. The decision overturns the guilty conviction, and the court ordered Hernandez to be released unless the state gives him a new trial within a reasonable period to be set by the lower court judge. The Manhattan District Attorney's office said it was reviewing the appeals court's decision. Hernandez, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, confessed soon after his brother-in-law told detectives the store clerk may have been a suspect, The New York Times reported. The relative claimed Hernandez told a prayer group decades earlier that he'd killed a child in New York. However, the defense claimed he was mentally unstable, and incapable of keeping the truth separate from fiction. "Pedro Hernandez is an odd, limited and vulnerable man," defense attorney Harvey Fishbein said during closing arguments. Defense lawyers also pointed to a different man who was long the prime suspect — a convicted Pennsylvania child molester who made incriminating remarks about Etan's case in the 1990s and who had dated a woman acquainted with the Patz family. He was never charged and denied killing the boy. The sentencing was the culmination of a long quest to hold someone criminally accountable in a case that affected police practices, parenting and the nation's consciousness of missing children. Since the boy's disappearance, law enforcement and volunteers have beefed up their capabilities in finding missing or lost children, establishing a nationwide network of search teams. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was incorporated in 1984 and soon launched a 24-hour hotline for tips. National Missing Children's Day is held every May 25 — the day in 1979 that Patz vanished.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Man convicted in infamous 1979 Etan Patz murder could get new trial
A federal appeals court determined the man convicted in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz should get a new trial or be released from custody in the interim. Pedro Hernandez was sentenced in 2017 to 25 years in prison after confessing to kidnapping and killing Patz in New York City, in what is one of the nation's most notorious child disappearance cases. The decision comes in response to Hernandez's appeal, in which he alleges a jury note was improperly handled during his trial and "prejudiced the verdict." In the July 21 decision from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the judge said the state trial court contradicted federal law and ordered Hernandez be released, unless the state goes forward with a retrial in what they determine to be a "reasonable period" of time. Patz went missing on his way to a school bus stop in his Soho neighborhood in May 1979. The widely publicized case was a lightning rod for law enforcement practices nationwide, and he was one of the first missing children ever to appear on a milk carton. Hernandez was a clerk at a store in Patz's neighborhood, and became a suspect decades after the first-grader disappeared, in 2012. Renewed interest in what had become a cold case prompted a relative to tell police Hernandez told a prayer group decades earlier that he'd killed a child. Hernandez's first trial in 2015 ended in a hung jury, while his second trial in 2017 ended with a conviction on charges of murder and kidnapping. The case helped establish National Missing Children's Day on May 25th, and for the creation of a national hotline for missing children. Patz's body has never been recovered, and was legally declared dead in 2001. Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@ and on X @KathrynPlmr. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Etan Patz case: Pedro Hernandez should get new trial, court rules
New York Times
a day ago
- New York Times
Conviction of Man in Killing of Etan Patz Is Overturned
A federal appeals court on Monday ordered that a man convicted in the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979 should receive a new trial or be released. The man, Pedro Hernandez, was convicted of murder in 2017 after he confessed to luring Etan into a basement as he walked to his school bus stop alone in SoHo and attacking him. Mr. Hernandez was charged by the Manhattan district attorney's office, with his first trial in 2015 ending in a hung jury. In 2017, a Manhattan jury convicted Mr. Hernandez on the ninth day of deliberations, after which the jury foreman said 'deliberations were difficult.' Mr. Hernandez's lawyers had argued in the appeal that the trial court's instructions to the jury were improper and prejudiced the verdict. 'We conclude that the state trial court contradicted clearly established federal law and that this error was not harmless,' a three-judge appeals panel held in a ruling on Monday. Efforts to reach the Manhattan district attorney's office for comment were not immediately successful. This is a developing story and will be updated.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump judicial nominee Bove clears Senate panel despite Democratic protest
By Andrew Goudsward WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. Senate panel on Thursday advanced the nomination of Donald Trump's former personal lawyer to be a federal appeals court judge over protests from Democrats, who accuse him of using aggressive tactics to enforce the U.S. president's agenda at the Justice Department. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously supported the nomination of Emil Bove for a lifetime appointment on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sending the nomination to the full Senate. Bove currently serves as a top Justice Department official. The hearing devolved into partisan rancor when the panel's Republican chairman, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, cut off debate on Bove's nomination. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, a Democrat, shouted that Grassley was violating the committee's rules as Republicans cast their votes. The other Democrats walked out of the hearing. "This is outrageous that you're not allowing senators to have their fair say," Booker told Grassley. "What are you afraid of?" Grassley accused Booker of "obstruction." Bove's nomination drew fierce opposition from Democrats and many former Justice Department employees, more than 900 of whom signed a letter accusing him of undermining the integrity of the department. Bove's defenders have pointed to his background as a federal terrorism prosecutor in New York and his work countering drug cartels and other threats. Trump named Bove to a senior post at the Justice Department after he helped defend Trump against three criminal cases brought against him during his years out of power. Bove came under scrutiny over his role in firing career prosecutors who worked on cases arising from the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and his order to drop a federal corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams. A former Justice Department lawyer last month accused Bove of suggesting the government may defy court rulings against the Trump administration's deportation efforts. Bove has said he cannot recall making the statement and denied being a Trump "enforcer."
