Manhattan DA to retry Etan Patz’s killer after conviction in deadly 1979 kidnapping was overturned

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday that it intends to retry Pedro Hernandez, the man found guilty of kidnapping and murdering a 6-year-old boy decades ago. 

Etan Patz went missing in 1979 after he walked to his bus stop alone for the first time in New York City. He was one of the first missing children to appear on milk cartons. 

Hernandez confessed to the crime nearly three decades later, and was sentenced to 25 years to life after being convicted of murder in 2017. His first trial ended in a hung jury in 2015.

“The District Attorney has determined that the available, admissible evidence supports prosecuting defendant on the charges of Murder in the Second Degree and Kidnapping in the First Degree in this matter, and the People are prepared to proceed,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Sarah Marquez wrote in a statement.

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Pedro Hernandez appears in Manhattan criminal court with his attorney, Harvey Fishbein, Nov. 15, 2012, in New York.  (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano, Pool, File)

Hernandez’s defense attorneys, Harvey Fishbein and Alice Fontier, told the Associated Press they “remain convinced that Mr. Hernandez is an innocent man.”

“But we will be prepared for trial and will present an even stronger defense,” the pair of attorneys added.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned Hernandez’s conviction in July, finding that the jury in 2017 had not received a thorough enough explanation of its options, including that it could ignore Hernandez’s confessions.

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Split of Pedro Hernandez in court and a missing poster for Etan Patz. (Reuters/Louis Lanzano/Pool; Reuters/Defense attorney Alice Fontier/Handout  )

Years before his conviction, Hernandez admitted to police that he lured Patz into the basement of the convenience store where he worked. Prosecutors claimed Hernandez choked Patz, stuffed his body into a plastic garbage bag hidden inside a box and took it out with the trash.

The appeals court found that the trial judge had issued “clearly wrong” and “manifestly prejudicial” instructions to the jury in response to a question about the suspect’s confessions to police.

In October, Judge Colleen McMahon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that Hernandez must receive a third trial by June 1, or he would ultimately be released.

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Stanley Patz, father of 1979 murder victim 6-year-old Etan Patz, (C) departs after speaking to the media at Manhattan State Supreme Court following the sentencing of Pedro Hernandez, in New York City, U.S., April 18, 2017. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)

A court hearing is scheduled for Dec. 1.

Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson contributed to this report.