New York jurors still unable to reach a verdict in Etan Patz case

New York jurors did not reach a verdict Monday in the murder trial of a former deli worker jailed for the murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz. This is the 14th day the jurors have deliberated on the trial verdict.

The 54-year-old, Pedro Hernandez, was charged with the murder and kidnap of the 6-year-old in 1979. His disappearance brought national attention to abducted or missing children, according to Las Vegas Review-Journal. Patz’s photograph was one of the first to be displayed on milk cartons in national campaigns in an effort to find missing children.

The jurors are scheduled to report back to state Supreme Court in Manhattan on Tuesday. This will be the 15th day that the jurors attempt to deliberate, according to Newsday. 

The only decision the jurors have made thus far is that they would like a printer to make 12 copies. The judge obliged and installed a printer for them to use. They had asked to use a laptop earlier in the trial to create a spreadsheet to organize their thoughts, and they requested to make copies of the document they had created.

The jurors also claimed they were stalemated. Since then, they have listened to closing statements and continued to deliberate. Jurors underwent 10 weeks of witness testimony. They began deliberations on April 15.

Patz was reported missing on May 25, 1979. He was walking by himself on the way to a bus stop for school.

Police said that Hernandez reportedly choked Patz in the basement of the deli in which he worked, put him in a box and left him in an alley in 2012. His attorneys said that the police coerced his confession and that he was mentally unstable.

Hernandez’s attorneys blame Jose Ramos for Patz’s disappearance. They say that Ramos’ girlfriend walked Patz home from school. Previously, she was considered a suspect. And her boyfriend, Ramos, is serving jail time in Pennsylvania for sexually abusing young boys.

 

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