The 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz has reached a legal conclusion. In a 6-3 Supreme Court decision on June 22, the justices reinstated Pedro Hernandez's 2017 conviction for kidnapping and murdering the child, eliminating his chances for a new trial.
Hernandez, now 65, is serving a 25 years-to-life sentence for the murder that, as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg put it, "changed a generation of New Yorkers." The case had already gone to trial twice—his first trial in 2015 ended in a mistrial, and last July, a federal appeals court ordered him retried or released. The Supreme Court's conservative majority reinstated the conviction instead.
The defense team is not backing down. Harvey Fishbein, Hernandez's attorney, told E! News they were "terribly disappointed" by the ruling. "We firmly believe," he said, "that an innocent man is in jail for a crime that he did not commit."
On May 25, 1979, Julie Patz allowed her son to walk two blocks alone from their SoHo home to a school bus stop for the first time. Wearing jeans, a blue corduroy jacket, and a black "Future Flight Captain" pilot cap, Etan never made it to school. His photograph became one of the first missing child images to capture national attention, triggering weeks of searches that stretched into decades of unanswered questions.
Etan's mother testified that her son was "totally outgoing and trusting of everyone." His case became a landmark in American true crime, a reminder of childhood innocence lost and the pursuit of justice.
