The Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a murder conviction in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz. The justices, by a 6-3 vote, granted an appeal from New York prosecutors who had urged them to undo a federal appeals court decision that overturned the verdict.

Case Background

Pedro Hernandez, 64, has been serving a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. His first trial ended in a mistrial, and his second trial resulted in a conviction that was later overturned by the appeals court. The appeals court had ruled that the judge in the second trial had improperly answered a question from jurors about how to consider Hernandez’s confession.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had called the basis for overturning the conviction “a slender reed” that essentially ignored a five-month-long trial with 66 witnesses. The Supreme Court agreed, stating that federal courts should not second-guess state courts under a 1996 federal law that was intended to reduce federal court oversight of state criminal trials.

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. Etan vanished while walking to his downtown Manhattan school bus stop on May 25, 1979. Hernandez worked at a nearby convenience shop at the time, but he didn’t become a suspect until 2012.

Original reporting: Dallas TX News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.