A federal judge will consider on Tuesday whether to release Pedro Hernandez, the former New York City bodega worker whose murder conviction in the infamous 1979 disappearance of young Etan Patz was dramatically overturned.
At 64 years old, Hernandez argues that he should either be released from state prison or granted a new trial within a “reasonable” timeframe, following a July ruling from an appellate court that vacated his guilty verdict.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office argues that Hernandez should remain incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility until the US Supreme Court decides whether to review the prosecution’s efforts to restore his conviction.
Judge Colleen McMahon is set to hear arguments from both sides during a preliminary hearing in Manhattan Federal Court on Tuesday afternoon, as it remains uncertain whether Hernandez will undergo a third trial concerning this high-profile case. It is anticipated that the judge will not make a decision regarding Hernandez’s release on Tuesday.
Prosecutors are reportedly preparing for the complexities of a potential third trial, but Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has not yet confirmed if his office will indeed seek to retry the decades-old case, which was initiated by his predecessor, Cy Vance.
“Preparation for a retrial would be particularly burdensome for the victim’s family, as they would need to relive the most traumatic experience of their lives for a trial that might not happen,” wrote Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo in court documents last week.
For decades, the Etan Patz case has perplexed law enforcement and intrigued the public after the young boy disappeared from a SoHo street on May 25, 1979—marking the first time his parents permitted him to walk alone to the bus stop.
Etan became one of the first missing children to be featured on milk cartons, and the anniversary of his disappearance has been established as National Missing Children’s Day.
Although his body was never discovered and no physical evidence linked Hernandez to the murder, he provided a disturbing videotaped confession claiming he killed the 6-year-old boy after luring him into the basement of the bodega near his school bus stop with the promise of a soda.
Defense attorneys maintain that Hernandez has been unjustly imprisoned for 13 years, arguing that his confessions to the crime stemmed from mental illness-induced delusions.
In July, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals nullified the conviction against Hernandez, concluding that the judge’s jury instructions during his 2017 trial were inadequate and prejudiced the result.
If the federal judge were to order Hernandez’s release, he could still remain confined, as he would be handed over to the city Department of Correction and would face a separate bail hearing in state court.
Hernandez came onto the police radar in 2012 when authorities received a tip that he had confessed to members of a prayer group about killing a child in New York.
His initial trial concluded in 2015 with a hung jury, while his retrial in 2017 saw him convicted of kidnapping and murder, leading to a 25 years to life sentence.
