The man convicted of kidnapping and killing 6-year-old Etan Patz in New York City in 1979 must be retried by June or be released, a federal judge in New York has ruled.
Pedro Hernandez, 64, was convicted in 2017 of kidnapping and murdering Etan and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison after he admitted to luring the child into the basement of a bodega in the city’s SoHo neighborhood in 1979.
In July, a New York federal appeals court overturned that conviction, and ruled Hernandez must receive a new trial or be released from custody. That decision was made over a flawed instruction by the New York state judge presiding over his case in response to a jury note about his alleged confessions.
Judge Colleen McMahon of Manhattan’s federal district court said in a ruling Thursday that if jury selection does not start by June 1, 2026, Hernandez must be released.
Her filing noted that prosecutors want the Supreme Court to review the Second Circuit Appeals Court decision.
“It is not my job to read the tea leaves and make predictions or estimates about when or how the Supreme Court will act on any petition for certiorari that may be filed,” McMahon wrote.
She did concede that there are challenges for the prosecution as just one member of the original trial team remains at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, and the prosecution is trying to locate “dozens of long-scattered witnesses who testified at the last trial some seven years ago.”
“The mandate — my marching orders — simply directs that I set an end date by which any retrial must commence, and order Hernandez freed if a retrial does not commence by that date,” McMahon said.
An attorney for Hernandez did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Hernandez’s attorneys had argued over the summer that the trial judge’s instructions were improper and tainted the verdict. Defense lawyers have also previously claimed that Hernandez is mentally ill and only confessed to the crime after he underwent hours of interrogation from police.
Etan went missing on May 25, 1979, while he was walking to a bus stop just two blocks from his family’s home in Manhattan, prompting a massive search around SoHo. He was declared dead in 2001, and his body was never found.
Police continued to look for the person responsible for Etan’s death, and tracked down Hernandez in New Jersey in 2012 after his brother-in-law called in a tip, according to the July order.
Hernandez later confessed to kidnapping and killing the child, according to the order. He allegedly told police that he lured the boy into the bodega with the promise of a soda and instead grabbed him by the neck and fatally choked him. He said he then put the boy’s body in a “garbage bag” before stuffing it into a box and leaving it with the trash around the corner, the order said.
While Hernandez did not offer a motive in his confession, he denied that it was sexual, according to the order.
“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 from July said. “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.”
Hernandez’s first trial in 2015 ended in a hung jury. His second trial began in September 2016 and focused on the alleged confession.
During deliberations, the jury sent three notes to the judge regarding Hernandez’s confession, the third asking the 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.”
According to the July order, the judge did not explain and only said the “answer is no.” The jury, after nine days of deliberation, ultimately convicted Hernandez of felony murder and first-degree kidnapping, and acquitted him of intentional murder, the order said.
Etan’s disappearance spurred the movement to put missing kids’ photos on milk cartons, making him one of the first faces to appear on the vessel in an effort to get the public’s help in tracking him down.
