WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a murder conviction in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
The justices, by a 6-3 vote, granted an appeal from New York prosecutors who had urged them to undo a federal appeals court decision that overturned the verdict. The three liberal justices dissented.
Prosecutors had been preparing to try the man, Pedro Hernandez, for a third time. His first trial ended in a mistrial.
The unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed Hernandez’ murder and kidnapping conviction in the second trial because of how the judge had answered a question from jurors.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had called the basis for overturning the conviction “a slender reed” that essentially ignored a five-month-long trial with 66 witnesses.
The justices agreed, in an unsigned opinion, that federal courts should not second-guess state courts under a 1996 federal law that was intended to reduce federal court oversight of state criminal trials.
“The Second Circuit exceeded its authority in holding that Hernandez is entitled to relief,” the justices wrote.
Hernandez, 64, has been serving a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Bragg hailed the high court’s decision. “This office has remained steadfast in its pursuit of justice for Etan and the Patz family and will continue to stand by this important conviction,” Bragg, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Hernandez’ lawyers said they were “terribly disappointed” by the ruling. “We firmly believe that an innocent man is in jail for a crime that he did not commit,” attorneys Harvey Fishbein and Alice Fontier said.
Hernandez admitted to the crime under police questioning, but his lawyers say he confessed falsely because of a mental illness that sometimes made him hallucinate. They emphasized that the admission came after police queried him for about seven hours before reading him his rights and recording the interview. Hernandez then repeated his confession on tape, at least twice.
Etan vanished while walking to his downtown Manhattan school bus stop on May 25, 1979. Hernandez worked at a nearby convenience shop at the time, but the Maple Shade, New Jersey, resident didn’t become a suspect until 2012.
Etan was among the first missing children ever to appear on milk cartons, and the anniversary of his disappearance became National Missing Children’s Day.
Hernandez already has been tried twice. A jury deadlocked in 2015, and then a different panel of jurors convicted him at a 2017 retrial.
During deliberations, the 2017 jurors asked a complicated question: If they decided Hernandez didn’t confess voluntarily when he hadn’t been read his rights yet, must they disregard his other confessions? The then-judge responded simply, “the answer is no.” The jury went on to convict.
In overturning that verdict, the appeals court said the jury’s question should have gotten a more fulsome answer, including the possibility of discounting all the confessions.
Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report from New York.
FILE- In this Nov. 15, 2012, file photo, Pedro Hernandez appears in Manhattan criminal court in New York. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano, Pool, File)
FILE - A photograph of Etan Patz hangs on an angel figurine, as part of a makeshift memorial in New York, May 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - The U.S. Supreme Court is seen, June 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
LONDON (AP) — When British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday he is stepping down, he became the sixth person to make a farewell speech in front of No. 10 Downing Street in a turbulent decade of U.K. politics.
Starmer had pledged to bring stability, grow the economy and end years of political chaos under the Conservative Party when he was elected in 2024 in a landslide victory for his Labour Party.
Barely two years later, Starmer was forced to step down after his popularity plummeted and his government struggled to deliver on his promise to “rebuild Britain.”
The rapid turnover in the past 10 years is a first in British modern political history. By contrast, the preceding four decades saw just six prime ministers.
A look at the quick succession of British prime ministers since 2016:
Cameron, who won an election majority in 2015, announced his resignation in June 2016 — a day after British voters voted to leave the European Union in a pivotal referendum that he had campaigned hard against.
It was Cameron who called the referendum in a bid to quell longstanding party quarrels over Britain's relationship with Europe.
May served from 2016 to May 2019, when she ended a failed three-year quest to lead Britain out of the European Union.
While May successfully struck a divorce deal with the EU, her fellow Conservative Party members refused to accept the deal. Her proposal was defeated three times in Parliament, rejected both by pro-EU opposition lawmakers and by Brexit-supporting Conservatives who thought it kept Britain too closely bound to the bloc.
“I have done my best,” May said at the time.
The charismatic and divisive Johnson oversaw Britain's exit from the EU and steered the country through the COVID-19 pandemic, but he was brought down after a series of ethics scandals tarnished his administration.
Johnson clung on to power even as allegations snowballed that he was too close to party donors, that he protected supporters from bullying and corruption allegations, and that he misled Parliament about government office parties that broke pandemic lockdown rules. He was eventually forced out after dozens of officials and his allies quit the government.
Truss, a libertarian who championed small government and free-market economics, became Britain's shortest-serving prime minister when she announced her resignation in October 2022, just six weeks after taking office.
Truss took the top job on a promise to shake up Britain's economy, but her ill-conceived stimulus plan, including drastic tax cuts, caused economic and political chaos and wiped out her support in the Conservative Party.
Sunak, Britain's youngest prime minister in some 200 years, secured support from his fellow Conservatives to take over from Truss in 2022. He vowed to reduce inflation, cut public healthcare backlogs and halt the flow of migrants entering the U.K. by illegal means.
Sunak was not able to lift the poll ratings for the Conservatives after the chaos brought by his predecessors. He called an early election for July 2024, and stepped down after his party suffered its biggest defeat in its two-century history.
“I am sorry," he said in a speech. “I take responsibility for this loss.”
Keir Starmer came to power after winning a landslide election victory in 2024, pledging to rebuild the economy and tattered public services and restore trust in politics. A former director of public prosecutions, Starmer was the first Labour Party prime minister Britain has seen in 14 years.
Close to two years later, after a series of policy missteps and party infighting, he acknowledged his party does not believe he is “best placed to lead us into the next general election.”
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and wife Victoria walk back inside 10 Downing Street after speaking to the media in London, Monday, June 22, 2026.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
FILE - This combo of file photos show the former Prime Ministers of Britain since 2016 during their resignation speeches outside 10 Downing Street in London. Top row, from left, Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak, and Liz Truss. Bottom row, from left, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, and David Cameron. (AP Photo/File)
