However, on Monday, a three-judge panel ruled that Hernandez’s conviction must be vacated due to improper jury instructions that undermined his constitutional rights. At the center of the appeal was Hernandez’s confession, made before he was read his Miranda Rights, and without any supporting physical evidence tying him to the crime.
The court stated that “the state trial court contradicted clearly established federal law,” adding that the judge’s handling of juror questions about the confession “was not harmless” and likely influenced the outcome of the case.
During jury deliberations in the 2017 trial, which followed a mistrial in 2015 due to a hung jury, jurors repeatedly asked the judge whether they could disregard the confession because it was obtained without Miranda warnings. The judge responded flatly: “The answer is, no.”
The appeals panel harshly criticized that instruction, writing: “Under the extraordinary circumstances of this case, we believe that no fair-minded jurist would conclude that the state has proved harmlessness beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Hernandez’s defense team has long argued that he was mentally ill and intellectually limited, making him susceptible to coercion and false confessions. His lawyers presented medical testimony that he suffers from schizotypal personality disorder and has an IQ near the threshold of intellectual disability. They argued that his confession was riddled with inconsistencies and the result of nearly seven hours of police interrogation.
Hernandez had never been a suspect until a relative told police he had confessed years earlier during a religious gathering. That tip led to renewed questioning and his eventual confession, which became the prosecution’s sole piece of evidence.
Reacting to the ruling, defense attorney Harvey Fishbein said, “For more than 13 years, Pedro Hernandez has been in prison for a crime he did not commit and based on a conviction that the Second Circuit has now made clear was obtained in clear violation of the law.” He added that the opinion “reads that an innocent man was convicted.”
The Etan Patz case was a cultural turning point in America’s awareness of missing children. Etan became the first child to appear on milk cartons in a nationwide effort to locate missing minors, and the anniversary of his disappearance—May 25—was later designated as National Missing Children’s Day.
Whether Hernandez will face a third trial or be released remains to be seen. For now, the case that haunted New York for decades has once again been cast into uncertainty.