US Seeks Retrial Of Main Suspect In 1979 Murder Of Six-Year-Old • Channels Television

In a case that still haunts US parents and forever changed the handling of child abductions, Etan Patz vanished on May 25, 1979, after leaving his parents’ home in Manhattan to walk alone for the first time to the school bus stop.

Pedro Hernandez, then 18 years old and working in a convenience store near the bus stop, was convicted at a second trial.

But a federal appeals court ruled in July that Hernandez must be released or re-tried because of errors in the second trial’s conduct.

“The state trial court contradicted clearly established federal law,” the appeals court found, after defense attorneys complained about instructions given to jurors.

Hernandez was arrested in 2012 following a tip to detectives. He had told family members he killed a child in New York, CNN reported at the time.

The first trial ended in 2015 with the jury failing to reach a unanimous verdict.