Supreme Court reinstates murder conviction in 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz

Key Points:

• The Supreme Court reinstated Pedro Hernandez's 2017 murder conviction in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz by a 6-3 vote, overturning a federal appeals court decision that had vacated the verdict over jury instruction issues.
• The appeals court had reversed the conviction because the judge's answer to a juror question about the voluntariness of Hernandez's confession was deemed insufficient, but the Supreme Court ruled federal courts should defer to state court decisions under a 1996 federal law limiting federal oversight.
• Hernandez, who admitted to the crime during police questioning but claims his confession was false due to mental illness and coercion, has been serving a 25 years-to-life sentence and will remain incarcerated, eligible for parole in 2037.
• The case of Etan Patz, who vanished while walking alone to a bus stop in New York City, was one of the first high-profile missing child cases to receive national attention and helped change parental supervision practices; Hernandez became a suspect decades later in 2012.
• Hernandez has been tried three times: the first trial ended in a mistrial, the second resulted in conviction overturned on appeal, and the third led to the conviction now reinstated by the Supreme Court.