A New Yorker has had his conviction overturned for the 1979 murder of a six year-old boy abducted and killed the first time his parents let him walk home alone from a school bus stop.
Pedro Hernandez should be retried for the killing of Etan Patz or set free, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday.
Hernandez was convicted in 2017 of killing Patz in 1979, after confessing he’d lured the youngster to a basement in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood.
On Monday, the appeals court ruled that instructions given to jurors as they prepared to deliberate that trial were improper and prejudicial, the New York Times warned.
A three-judge panel ruled on Monday that ‘the state trial court contradicted clearly established federal law and that this error was not harmless.’
Hernandez first went on trial for Patz’ murder in 2015, but the prosecution ended in a hung jury before a second trial saw him convicted following over nine days of deliberations.
Etan Patz, 6, disappeared in May 1979 when he was believed to be abducted on his way to a school bus stop
Pedro Hernandez confessed to killing Patz, however he has not had his conviction overturned and will either receive a new trial or will be freed
