Supreme Court Reinstates Murder Conviction in Etan Patz Case

The ruling resolves a decades-long legal proceeding stemming from one of the most closely watched missing-child cases in U.S. history, with the Court's decision restoring a conviction that had...

The U.S. Supreme Court has reinstated the murder conviction of the defendant found guilty in connection with the 1979 disappearance of six-year-old Etan Patz of New York City, according to a report by ABC News published on or before June 22, 2026. The Court's order reverses a lower court ruling that had vacated or disturbed the conviction, though the specific grounds for the Supreme Court's reinstatement — whether decided on the merits or on procedural grounds — were not detailed in the available source material.

Etan Patz disappeared on May 25, 1979, in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, making him one of the first missing children to appear on a milk carton as part of a national awareness campaign. His case remained unsolved for decades. Pedro Hernandez was ultimately charged, tried, and convicted in the case; his first trial in 2015 ended in a hung jury, and a second trial in 2017 resulted in a guilty verdict on charges of murder and kidnapping, according to prior court records and contemporaneous news reporting.

The lower court decision that the Supreme Court has now reversed had called the conviction into question. The precise appellate court involved and the specific legal basis for that intermediate ruling — whether grounded in constitutional claims, evidentiary standards, or ineffective assistance of counsel — are not specified in the source material available to The Congressional Times as of June 22, 2026.

The Supreme Court's action falls within its jurisdiction over federal constitutional questions arising from state criminal convictions, which can reach the Court through petitions for certiorari or, in some procedural postures, through emergency applications. Which of these vehicles was used, which Justices joined the majority, whether any dissents were filed, and the full text of the Court's reasoning are not available in the source material provided. The official Supreme Court opinion or order, available at supremecourt.gov, would contain that information.

What remains unknown as of publication: the exact procedural posture of the Supreme Court's ruling, the vote count among the nine Justices, and whether any concurring or dissenting opinions were issued. The full opinion or order from the Supreme Court docket, along with the underlying New York appellate court decision that was reversed, would answer these questions and are publicly accessible through the Supreme Court's official docket and the New York state court system's public records.