- The US Supreme Court, by a 6-3 vote, reinstated the murder conviction Monday of Pedro Hernandez for the 1979 disappearance of six-year-old Etan Patz, overturning a federal appeals court decision.
- New York prosecutors had appealed the federal appeals court's ruling, which had reversed Pedro Hernandez’s conviction due to how the trial judge answered a jury question during deliberations.
- Etan vanished while walking to his downtown Manhattan school bus stop on May 25, 1979. His disappearance was a pivotal case as he was one of the first missing children to appear on milk cartons, and the anniversary of his disappearance became National Missing Children’s Day.
- Hernandez worked at a nearby convenience shop at the time of Etan’s disappearance, but the Maple Shade, New Jersey, resident didn’t become a suspect until 2012.
- Currently serving a sentence of 25 years to life, Hernandez had confessed to the crime under police questioning, though his lawyers argued the confession was false due to mental illness and was obtained before he was read his rights.
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