MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
A surprise development today in a case that captured attention in the United States for decades. A 6-year-old boy named Etan Patz disappeared in New York City in 1979. The case focused attention on missing children in the U.S. In 2017, a man named Pedro Hernandez was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Patz. Today, a panel of federal judges threw out that conviction. NPR's Brian Mann is following this. He's with me now. Hey, Brian.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.
KELLY: OK, so for those of us who were little kids ourselves or not born yet when all this played out, remind us why this case drew so much attention.
MANN: Yeah, this was really a heartbreaking mystery. In May of 1979, Etan Patz vanished while walking to the school bus stop just a couple of blocks from his house in Soho in New York City. He was 6 years old. And despite a massive search, he vanished without a trace. To this day, his body has never been found. No physical evidence has been uncovered.
And Mary Louise, this little boy's disappearance contributed to a real change in American culture. His face and his story were among the first missing children featured on those milk cartons that were a thing for a while. And this mystery really added to the growing fear among parents across the U.S. that their kids maybe aren't safe on the streets. And for many decades after that, there were no answers - no arrests or convictions. Finally, in 2012, law enforcement turned their attention on this one man, Pedro Hernandez.
KELLY: Yeah. And so 2012 - from 1979 to 2012 - why, after so many years, did they turn their attention to this man?
MANN: Yeah. One of Hernandez's family members - a brother-in-law - tipped police that he thought maybe Pedro Hernandez might have been involved. That sparked a new investigation, and police did find that back in 1979, Pedro Hernandez worked at a bodega near Etan Patz's bus stop. They also found that over the years, Hernandez told people he believed he had killed someone, though his stories varied widely, and it wasn't clear how plausible they were. So finally, Hernandez was questioned, and he confessed, which led to these two state trials. The first in 2015 ended in a hung jury. But then in 2017, after nine days of deliberations, a different jury found Hernandez guilty. He's been in prison ever since.
KELLY: OK. And just to stress again, there was a conviction. There was a confession. Why was the conviction overturned today on appeal?
MANN: OK, so it really does focus on that controversial confession. That's at the heart of this reversal. According to court documents, Pedro Hernandez had a documented low IQ and a history of mental illness and delusions. But after he was detained in 2012, he was questioned by police, Mary Louise, for seven hours. And during that time, court records show he was given medication for his mental illness, including fentanyl, the really powerful opioid. And only at the end of all those hours and that process did he finally confess. And only then did police read him his Miranda rights. They began a recording of their interrogation. They turned on the tape, and they told Hernandez to repeat his account of the confession. So during that second trial in 2017, the jury was clearly troubled by all that. They were troubled by that interrogation process, and that became the focus of this appeal.
KELLY: Yeah. And stay with the judges who were looking, going back over that confession. Do we know what they found?
MANN: We do. They talked about this. They focused on questions that jurors asked in 2017. Jurors wanted instructions from the court back then - how should they act if they felt parts of this confession weren't voluntary? And what the panel of judges ruled today is that the court gave the jury improper, misleading and prejudicial instructions how to deal with those questions, how to deliberate. I want to read just one bit of what these federal judges wrote today. They say, we conclude that the state trial court contradicted clearly established federal law. This error was not harmless, so this conviction is thrown out.
KELLY: And just briefly, Brian, what happens now, both to Pedro Hernandez and to the case?
MANN: He's going to be released - that's what the judges today said - after eight years behind bars. The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, could attempt to try him a third time. But remember, these controversial confessions, they were the only thing tying him to this boy's disappearance, which leaves us, Mary Louise, with that mystery that started all of this. Etan Patz vanished, and we still have no idea what happened to him.
KELLY: NPR's Brian Mann, thank you.
MANN: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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