The police department of New York City supplied this poster of missing Manhattan schoolboy Etan Patz, who disappeared in 1979 on his way to school. On Monday, the Supreme Court restored the conviction of the man who confessed to killing the boy. File Photo courtesy NYPD | License Photo
June 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday restored the murder conviction of a man who kidnapped and killed 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979.
The high court voted 6-3 in favor of restoring the conviction of Pedro Hernandez, who was also found guilty of kidnapping the boy in Lower Manhattan. The three liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, dissented.
Hernandez, a disabled factory worker from New Jersey -- whose lawyers argued had low intelligence and a history of mental illness -- confessed twice to police in 2012 that he kidnapped Etan as the boy walked to a school bus stop in Manhattan. He said he lured Etan into a bodega basement where he strangled him. The boy's body was never found.
Defense attorneys argued Hernandez confessed due to mental illness and pressure from police.
