The Supreme Court of the United States reinstated a conviction for a man who was previously found guilty of murdering a 6-year-old boy.
In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court has reinstated the murder conviction of Pedro Hernandez who previously had his conviction overturned by the Second Circuit US Court of Appeals.
According to prosecutors Hernandez kidnapped and murdered 6-year-old Etan Patz in New York City in 1979.
Fox News had more details to share on the Supreme Court’s decision:
The U.S. Supreme Court reinstated a murder conviction connected to the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz in New York City.
“This case concerns a tragic event that once captured the Nation’s attention. On May 25, 1979, 6-year-old Etan Patz left his family’s apartment in lower Manhattan to take a bus to school. Before boarding the bus, he stopped to buy a drink at a bodega where respondent Pedro Hernandez, then 18 years old, was working. Patz never got on the bus and was never seen alive again,” the Supreme Court noted.
Hernandez’s first trial resulted in a hung jury, the Supreme Court recalled, but he was later convicted in 2017 following a second trial and sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison.
Today the Supreme Court slapped down the move made by a federal appeals court last year to overturn Hernandez’s conviction.
“The Second Circuit exceeded its authority in holding that Hernandez is entitled to relief under §2254(d),” the Supreme Court declared, reversing the Second Circuit’s ruling.
Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson opposed the move, as the Court’s order noted that they would not have even heard the challenge of the Second Circuit’s decision.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement, “Today the Supreme Court agreed with the findings of multiple lower courts and upheld the trial conviction of Pedro Hernandez for the horrific murder of Etan Patz, which changed a generation of New Yorkers.”
Here’s a photo of Patz and Hernandez:
Supreme Court reinstates murder conviction in case of Etan Patz, missing New York City boy https://t.co/vQDf5adayH pic.twitter.com/bdOJqVrLHT
— New York Post (@nypost) June 22, 2026
CBS News reported Hernandez confessed to police that he murdered Patz:
Hernandez admitted to the crime under police questioning, but his lawyers say he confessed falsely because of a mental illness that sometimes made him hallucinate. They emphasized that the admission came after police queried him for about seven hours before reading him his rights and recording the interview. Hernandez then repeated his confession on tape, at least twice.
Etan Patz walked out of his New York City home headed for a school bus stop just two blocks away. He had asked his parents to let him do the short walk to the bus stop alone for the first time. He had a dollar to buy a soda at a corner deli.
The 6-year-old never made it to school that day in May of 1979, and he’s never been found.
Hernandez worked at a nearby convenience shop at the time, but the Maple Shade, New Jersey, resident didn’t become a suspect until 2012.
Etan was among the first missing children ever to appear on milk cartons, and the anniversary of his disappearance became National Missing Children’s Day.
Hernandez already has been tried twice. A jury deadlocked in 2015, and then a different panel of jurors convicted him at a 2017 retrial.
During deliberations, the 2017 jurors asked a complicated question: If they decided Hernandez didn’t confess voluntarily when he hadn’t been read his rights yet, must they disregard his other confessions? The then-judge responded simply, “the answer is no.” The jury went on to convict.
48 Hours provided further details on the murder in a true-crime documentary:
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