Credit: Stan Patz/Patz Imaging
(New York, NY) — A federal appeals court is ruling that the man convicted in the infamous kidnapping and murder of Etan Patz in Soho should get a new trial or be released.
Pedro Hernandez was sentenced to 25 years to life after he was convicted in 2017 in the disappearance and killing of the six-year-old in 1979. Hernandez confessed to luring Etan, who was walking to school at the time, into the basement of the bodega where he worked and strangling him but the boy’s body was never found.
The appeals panel said in Monday’s (July 21, 2025) ruling that jury instructions were inadequate, resulting in a biased outcome. Hernandez ‘ first trial ended in a hung jury. Etan was the first missing child to be featured on a milk carton. He had asked his parents to let him do the short walk to the bus stop alone for the first time. He had a dollar to buy a soda at a corner deli.
