CREATORS
August 5, 2025
In 1979, a 6-year-old boy disappeared on his way to his
Manhattan school bus stop. Etan Patz's disappearance changed the way people
parent, launching the missing and exploited children's movement. Patz was never
found.
Thirty-three years later, Pedro Hernandez was arrested and
charged by the Manhattan district attorney's office with second-degree murder
and first-degree kidnapping.
According to The New York Times, "Hernandez was living
in New Jersey when a relative told authorities that he suspected him of killing
Etan. Prosecutors said that Mr. Hernandez had a history of sexually abusing a
family member, drug use and domestic violence."
This arrest was high-profile. As one of the nation's most
infamous child abductions, with an arrest decades after the crime, one would
think the police would want to make sure everything was done by the book. Not
in New York City.
The police elicited a confession from Hernandez after seven
hours of questioning. That isn't particularly unusual, but the confession came
before he was administered his Miranda warnings. After he confessed, he was
mirandized by the police who had Hernandez repeat his confession on tape,
according to court filings.
The New York Times reported, Hernandez's first trial in 2015
ended with a hung jury after 18 days of deliberation. The lone holdout said
that his primary reason had been Hernandez's initial confession, which to the
juror seemed "coerced."
In 2017, a second jury convicted Hernandez on the ninth day
of deliberations. The jury foreman later remarked that "deliberations were
difficult."
Last month, a federal court granted Hernandez a new trial.
A quarter-century after Patz disappeared, Americans were
presented with a list of six crimes that could happen in their local
communities. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found that Americans expressed the
greatest concern for their children being abducted and sexually molested.
Child abductions by strangers have consistently remained a
concern for parents. Despite the more than 30,000 juveniles who are reported
missing every year to the National Crime Information Center, it is rare for
children to be abducted by strangers. Roughly 182 children were kidnapped by
people outside their families in 2019, the latest year for which data is
available, according to a study published in 2022 by the Department of Justice.
A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found nearly one-in-three
U.S. parents with children younger than 18 say they are extremely or very
worried about their children being abducted.
Etan's disappearance, the murders of Adam Walsh, Polly Klaas
and JonBenet Ramsey ushered in, and fueled, an era of hyper-vigilance for
parents. Parents' irrational fear of stranger danger changed the way parents
care for their children, and the way children interact with adults and their
peers for that matter. Politicians jumped on the stranger danger bandwagon.
Starting with former President Ronald Reagan proclaiming the day Etan Patz
disappeared, May 25, as National Missing Children's Day, politicians have
enacted more and more draconian laws to deal with the sexual abuse and
exploitation of children.
Hernandez's arrest and conviction for killing Etan should
have provided some closure for a case that had extraordinary implications. His
new trial will open wounds festering for 46 years. The upheaval could have been
avoided.
Hernandez was arrested and tried in a cold case based on
flimsy evidence devoid of any forensic evidence. Then investigators interviewed
Hernandez without advising him of his rights. The police then read him his
rights and interviewed him a second time, getting a second taped confession.
This tactic flew in the face of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2004.
The Court, in a 5-4 decision, found the second confession
inadmissible, particularly when the police strategy was to intentionally
undermine the effectiveness of the Miranda warnings. That decision is the key
to Hernandez's successful appeal and Etan Patz being back in the news.
Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett,
Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner's Toll, 2010 was released by
McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him
on Twitter @MatthewTMangino
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