America’s Kids Have Never Been Safer

On Monday, a federal appeals court made a ruling that threatened to open an old wound for New Yorkers. The court overturned the 2017 conviction of Pedro Hernandez, a bodega clerk who had confessed to abducting and murdering 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979. Patz’s case had been a media sensation at the time of his disappearance, helping to crystallize public disgust with the perceived chaos and lawlessness of life in New York in the 1970s. The legal proceedings against Hernandez, brought after family members came forward to say that Hernandez had confessed to the crime, stretched on for years thanks to a hung jury and complex procedural questions. The appeals court ruled that improper jury instructions had unfairly influenced the verdict and that Hernandez must be retried or else freed. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has announced that they will review the case.