Latest news with #retrial
CNN
23-07-2025
- CNN
His murder conviction was thrown out, but Richard Glossip will stay in prison while he waits for a new trial, judge rules
A judge on Wednesday denied bond for former Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, keeping him in custody while he awaits a retrial after the US Supreme Court tossed his conviction and death sentence in the 1997 killing of his former boss, according to court records. District Judge Heather Coyle said in the order that the 'State has sufficiently shown by clear and convincing evidence that the presumption of the defendant's guilt of a capital offense is great.' The order comes after a hearing on Glossip's motion to set bond on June 17. Glossip's attorney declined to comment on the judge's decision Wednesday. The ruling is the latest twist in the legal saga surrounding Glossip, who has been scheduled for execution nine times and has eaten his last meal three times only to have his execution stayed. After nearly three decades maintaining his innocence on Oklahoma's death row and the emergence of new evidence in recent years, the US Supreme Court in February tossed Glossip's conviction and death sentence. The Glossip case is arguably the highest-profile death penalty case to reach the court in years. The court ordered that Glossip receive a new trial, finding prosecutors failed to correct false testimony that may have influenced his jury. Then, Oklahoma prosecutors said last month they would retry the longtime death row inmate a third time for his role in the killing of his former boss. Since Glossip's 1998 conviction as the alleged orchestrator of a murder-for-hire scheme targeting his boss, Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese, a raft of issues with his prosecution has surfaced, coinciding with a shift of political winds now at the inmate's back. The fight to spare Glossip's life – which has drawn national attention – has been largely helmed by pro-death penalty Republicans, most notably Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond: He and others have said it's important Oklahomans have faith the death penalty is fairly administrated, and that Glossip's execution would erode trust in the state's justice system, given the questions surrounding his case. Drummond in June announced that he intends to pursue a new murder trial against Glossip on a first-degree murder charge. Drummond said that he would seek a sentence of life in prison for Glossip instead of the death penalty. Allegations surfaced that the state withheld evidence related to its star witness. Glossip's conviction rested on testimony from Van Treese's actual killer, Justin Sneed, who got a life sentence in exchange for a guilty plea and for testifying against Glossip. Sneed's testimony was the sole evidence linking Glossip, the motel's manager, to the killing. In its February decision, the Supreme Court found prosecutors had not corrected false testimony Sneed provided at trial; had they, his credibility would have suffered, undercutting his testimony – the lodestar of the prosecution's case. Years after Sneed's testimony, the state disclosed evidence that Sneed was treated for a serious psychiatric condition. The notes indicate prosecutors knew that Sneed's diagnosis and treatment at the time of Glossip's trial and, according to Glossip's supporters, hid that information from his defense. This is a developing story and will be updated. CNN's Dakin Andone contributed to this report.
CNN
23-07-2025
- CNN
His murder conviction was thrown out, but Richard Glossip will stay in prison while he waits for a new trial, judge rules
A judge on Wednesday denied bond for former Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, keeping him in custody while he awaits a retrial after the US Supreme Court tossed his conviction and death sentence in the 1997 killing of his former boss, according to court records. This is a developing story and will be updated. CNN's Dakin Andone contributed to this report.
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Yahoo
Judge orders new trial in famous case of boy murdered in 1979
Pedro Hernandez, the man convicted of kidnapping and murdering Etan Patz in 1979, should be retried or released, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based its decision on a flawed jury instruction given by a New York state judge about Hernandez's purported confessions. Hernandez, 64, is currently in state prison serving a sentence of 25 years to life after he was convicted in 2017 of kidnapping and murdering Patz, the 6-year-old boy whose face was the first placed on a milk carton to seek public help finding missing children. A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said, "We are reviewing the decision." Because of the lack of physical evidence, the trial -- Hernandez's second, after the first jury hung -- hinged entirely on Hernandez's purported confessions to luring Etan into a basement as he walked to his school bus stop alone in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood. MORE: Etan Patz Suspect Arrested 33 Years After Boy Vanished in New York Hernandez, who has a documented history of mental illnesses and a low IQ, initially confessed after seven hours of questioning by three police officers. Immediately after Hernandez confessed, the police administered Miranda warnings, began a video recording and had Hernandez repeat his confession on tape. He did so again, several hours later, to an assistant district attorney. When deliberating, the jury sent the judge three different notes about Hernandez's confessions. One of them asked the judge to explain whether, if the jury found that Hernandez's confession before he was read his rights "was not voluntary," it "must disregard" the later confessions. The judge responded, without further explanation, "the answer is, no." The federal appeals court concluded "the state trial court's instruction was clearly wrong" and "that the error was manifestly prejudicial." The court said Hernandez must be released or retried within a reasonable amount of time. "For more than 13 years, Pedro Hernandez has been in prison for a crime he did not commit and based on a conviction that the Second Circuit has now made clear was obtained in clear violation of law," Hernandez's appellate lawyer, Ted Diskant, at McDermott Will & Emery, said in a statement. "We are grateful the Court has now given Pedro a chance to get his life back, and I call upon the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to drop these misguided charges and focus their efforts where they belong: on finding those actually responsible for disappearance of Etan Patz." Hernandez, a stock boy at a local convenience store, was accused of luring Patz to the basement with a bottle of soda. Patz vanished on the first day he was allowed to walk to the school bus stop alone on May 25, 1979. His body has never been found.
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Yahoo
Man convicted in 1979 kidnap and murder of Etan Patz must have new trial or be freed, appeals court rules
A New York federal appeals court Monday ruled that the former bodega stock clerk convicted in the 1979 kidnapping and murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz should receive a new trial or be released from custody. Pedro Hernandez, 64, was convicted in 2017 of kidnapping and murdering Patz after he confessed to luring the child into a basement as he walked to his bus stop in SoHo. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in connection with the case that rocked New York City. The child was among the first to be placed on a milk carton to seek the public's help in finding him. In a 51-page ruling on Monday by a three-judge panel, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction, ordering that Hernandez should be retried or released because of a flawed instruction by the New York state judge presiding over his case in response to a jury note about his alleged confessions. In their appeal, Hernandez's lawyers argued that the instructions were improper and tainted the verdict. His lawyers have previously argued that Hernandez is mentally ill and confessed after hours of police interrogation. "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 its ruling Monday. A spokesperson with the Manhattan district attorney's office told NBC News that "we are reviewing the decision." In a statement, Hernandez's trial and appellate legal team said that "for more than 13 years, Pedro Hernandez has been in prison for a crime he did not commit and based on a conviction that the Second Circuit has now made clear was obtained in clear violation of law." "We are grateful the Court has now given Pedro a chance to get his life back, and I call upon the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to drop these misguided charges and focus their efforts where they belong: on finding those actually responsible for the disappearance of Etan Patz," the statement added. Etan vanished on May 25, 1979, while walking to a bus stop two blocks from his family's Manhattan home. His disappearance launched a massive search in the SoHo neighborhood and spurred the national movement to put photographs of missing kids on milk cartons. The child was declared dead in 2001, but police continued their investigation into him and his likely killer. In May 2012, authorities tracked down Hernandez in Jersey on a tip from his brother-in-law, according to the order. Hernandez, who was 18 when Etan went missing, later confessed to luring the boy into a bodega with the promise of a soda and grabbing him by the neck and fatally choking him. The order says that Hernandez then said he put the boy's body in a "garbage bag" before stuffing him into a box and leaving it in a trash area around the corner from the bodega. He did not provide a motive at the time but denied it was sexual, the order says. "Hernandez, who has a documented history of mental illnesses and a low intelligence quotient ('IQ'), initially confessed after approximately seven hours of unwarned questioning by three police officers," the ruling Monday says. "Immediately after Hernandez confessed, the police administered Miranda warnings, began a video recording, and had Hernandez repeat his confession on tape. He did so again, several hours later, to an Assistant District Attorney ('ADA'). At trial, the prosecution discussed and played these videos repeatedly." The boy's body was never found, and prosecutors were unable to find anybody who saw Hernandez with him. Hernandez's first trial in 2015, where he was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree kidnapping, ended in a hung jury after 18 days of deliberations. The second trial began in September 2016, where prosecutors centered their case on Hernandez's confession. The order Monday says that during closing arguments, the prosecution played clips from Hernandez's taped confessions for the jury at least seven times. "When deliberating during his second trial, the jury sent the judge three different notes about Hernandez's confessions,' the appellant's order says. "The third note asked the trial court to 'explain' whether, if the jury found that Hernandez's un-Mirandized confession 'was not voluntary,' it 'must disregard' the later confessions, including the videotaped confessions at the local Camden County Prosecutor's Office ('CCPO') and the Manhattan District Attorney's ('DA's') Office.' The order says that the court instructed the jury, without explaining, that the "answer is no." When they finally reached a verdict, Hernandez was convicted of felony murder and first-degree kidnapping in the after nine days of deliberations. The jury, however, acquitted him of intentional murder, the order says. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- 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
