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Appeals court orders new trial for 1979 Etan Patz murder case
An appeals court has overturned the guilty verdict of the man convicted of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz. FOX 5 NY's Arthur Chi'en has the details.
NEW YORK - An appeals court has overturned the guilty verdict of the man convicted of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz, the Associated Press reports.
Guilty verdict overturned in 1979 Etan Patz case
What we know:
The man convicted of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979, Pedro Hernandez, was awarded a new trial Monday, July 21, as a federal appeals court overturned the guilty verdict.
Pedro Hernandez has been serving 25 years to life in prison since his 2017 conviction. He had been arrested in 2012 after a search that spanned decades for answers in Etan’s disappearance.
A crying woman left a heartfelt message shaped like a heart outside the store where a deli once stood, where Etan Patz was last seen alive in 1979 on Tuesday, February 14, 2017. The metal door to the basement is where it is believed Etan's body was c …
The appeals court overturned the conviction because of an issue involving how the trial judge handled a jury note during Hernandez 2017 trial — his second. His first trial ended in a jury deadlock in 2015.
The ruling says that the judges concluded that the state trial court’s instruction was not only "clearly wrong" but "manifestly prejudicial."
The court ordered his release unless the state gives him a new trial within a reasonable period to be set by the lower court judge.
Harvey Fishbein, an attorney for Hernandez, declined to comment when approached by the Associated Press.
The backstory:
Etan was among the first missing children pictured on milk cartons. His case contributed to an era of fear among American families, making anxious parents more protective of kids who many once allowed to roam and play unsupervised in their neighborhoods.
His own parents' advocacy helped to establish a national missing-children hotline and to make it easier for law enforcement agencies to share information about such cases. The May 25 anniversary of his disappearance became National Missing Children's Day.
From the start, the 6-year-old's case spurred a huge manhunt and an enduring, far-flung investigation. But no trace of him has ever been found. A civil court declared him dead in 2001.
The Source: This article includes reporting from the Associated Press and previous reporting from FOX 5 NY.