Day: July 21, 2025

(Reuters) -A federal appeals court on Monday overturned the conviction of a former Manhattan bodega clerk found guilty of kidnapping and murdering Ethan Patz, a 6-year-old boy whose 1979 disappearance stoked national fears about missing and abducted children. A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Pedro Hernandez, serving a prison sentence of 25 years to life, released from custody unless the state grants him a new trial within a time frame deemed “reasonable” by a federal judge. It will be up to the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to decide whether to seek what would be a third trial in a case that dates back nearly a quarter-century and was originally brought by Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance.