Channels

Etan Patz

Retrial of Etan Patz's suspected murderer began Thursday

After being saved from prison by one juror who was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of his guilt, Pedro Hernandez again stands trial for the murder of six-year-old Etan Patz in 1979.

NEW YORK — It has been 37 years since Etan Patz left home for school and never returned. But now his story is back in the headlines.

 

The retrial of Pedro Hernandez, accused of murdering the six-year-old Patz, began on Thursday. He was accused three years ago.

 

Etan Patz (Photo: AP)
Etan Patz (Photo: AP)

 

The Etan Patz case is one of the most famous and difficult cases in the United States.

 

On the morning of May 25, 1979, Patz left his house in the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo to his bus which took him to school every day. He then disappeared. The story shocked the country and changed the way American families deal with the safety of their children. It was the first time that Stanley and Julie Patz had allowed their son to go to the bus stop alone. They haven't moved or changed their telephone number since Etan went missing in the hope that their son will try to reach them.

 

Pedro Hernandez (Photo: Reuters)
Pedro Hernandez (Photo: Reuters)

 

President Ronald Regan marked the day Etan went missing as "National Missing Children's Day," as Etan was one of the first children to be pictured on milk cartons in an attempt to find him.

 

The courts acceded to an official request by the Patz family in 2001 to have Etan classified as dead. Then, 33 years after the boy's disappearance, the New York Police Department arrested a 55-year-old man by the name of Pedro Hernandez. He was working at a bodega next to the Patz family home. He admitted to carrying out the killing, and an indictment for first degree murder was filed against him.

 

 

Hernandez's defense claims that the police issued the indictment against a weak man both physically and in character.

 

He went on trial last year for the murder of the child, but after 18 days of deliberations, the jury could not reach a verdict. Eleven of the jurors voted to convict him, but one of the jurors, Adam C. Sirois, said, “Ultimately I couldn’t find enough evidence that was not circumstantial to convict.”

 


פרסום ראשון: 10.21.16, 10:26
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment