The 2017 verdict that seemed to bring a sad but final closure to the 1979 disappearance of six-year-old Etan Patz has instead been overturned, as an appellate court says the confession that sealed the guilt of Pedro Hernandez should never have been allowed. Hernandez confessed twice to police, but only the second confession came after he was read his Miranda rights, and that is where the decision to toss the conviction hinges. ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Aaron Katersky appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to discuss what the decision means to Hernndez, as well as to the parents of the young boy who would have been a 52-year-old man today had fate not intervened that fateful spring morning nearly half a century ago.
Katersky told host Larry Mendte why the appellate court decided the Hernandez confession should be disregarded: “The Second Circuit has said that the trial judge, Max Wiley, made an error when, during jury deliberations, jurors sent a note asking about Pedro Hernandez’s confessions. Remember, he effectively confessed twice… and the federal appeals court said that that instruction was ‘clearly wrong’ and ‘manifestly prejudicial,’ and so the court has ordered Pedro Hernandez get released or retried by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is now reviewing the decision.”
Katerksy says Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will now have to weigh several options in deciding whether to retry Hernandez or let him go with time served. “There’s a lot for prosecutors to consider, and of course they may opt for a different route, which is to challenge the appellate court and maybe try to take it to the US Supreme Court.”
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