The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday reinstated the murder conviction of Pedro Hernandez in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz. The justices ruled 6-3 in favor of New York prosecutors, who had appealed a federal appeals court decision that had overturned the conviction.
Hernandez, a former store clerk, had confessed to luring Patz into a Manhattan bodega basement and strangling him. The case remained unsolved for decades until Hernandez's confession in 2012. He was convicted in 2017, but the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction in 2023, citing issues with jury instructions.
The Supreme Court's decision reinstates the original conviction, sending the case back to the lower courts for further proceedings consistent with its ruling. The majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, held that the appeals court had overstepped its bounds in overturning the jury's verdict.
