U.S. Supreme Court reinstates murder conviction in the case of Etan Patz

WASHINGTON (NBC, KYMA) - The U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the murder conviction in the case of Etan Patz, who went missing in 1979.

By a 6-3 vote, the justices sided with New York prosecutors to undo a Federal Appeals Court decision that overturned Pedro Hernandez's conviction. The three liberal judges dissented.

Patz was six-years-old when he went missing while walking to his Downtown Manhattan school bus stop on May 25, 1979. His case drew nationwide interest.

Patz was among the first missing children to be featured on milk cartons, and the anniversary of his disappearance became National Missing Children's Day.

33 years later, in 2012, Hernandez, who was a teenager working at a nearby shop at the time that Patz went missing, was arrested.

Hernandez admitted to the crime under police questioning, but his lawyers say he confessed falsely because of a mental illness, and said the admission came after police questioned him for about seven hours before reading his rights and recording the interview.

Hernandez was tried twice, with a jury deadlocking in 2015 and a conviction in 2017.

His defense argued successfully to a federal appeals court that the judge in the 2017 case didn't give a clear enough answer to a jury question during deliberations, throwing the conviction into doubt.

The Supreme Court overruled the Appeals Court decision, reinstating the murder conviction.

Hernandez is serving 25 to life in prison.