Guilty Verdict Upheld In Etan Patz Murder Trial
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
A New York state judge on Thursday rejected a request from a former delicatessen worker to throw out his February conviction for murdering Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy whose disappearance in 1979 became one of the country’s most infamous missing child cases.
The decision paves the way for Pedro Hernandez, 56, to be sentenced on April 18 for murder and kidnapping. He faces up to life in prison.
Patz vanished as he walked alone to a bus stop in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood on May 25, 1979. The ensuing media attention raised awareness of the plight of missing children, and Patz was one of the first whose photo appeared on a milk carton seeking information.
Hernandez confessed, but his lawyers argued at trial that his admission was the product of mental illness. Patz’s body was never found.
Defense lawyers said in court papers that some jurors at the second trial knew that jurors from the first trial were in the courtroom, sitting near Patz’s father, Stanley Patz.
But Judge Maxwell Wiley ruled on Thursday that fact, even if true, was not enough on its own to throw out the verdict.
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.
But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
