Retrial scheduled in Etan Patz 1979 murder case
NEW YORK - The retrial of a suspect in the 1979 kidnapping and slaying of New York City boy Etan Patz has been scheduled for early next year.
A judge on Monday scheduled jury selection in the case for Feb. 22.
A previous trial for defendant Pedro Hernandez lasted for months. It ended in May after 18 days of deliberations with the jury deadlocked 11-1in favor of guilt.
Six-year-old Etan vanished after leaving his family's SoHo apartment to walk to the bus. The disappearance helped galvanize the modern-day missing-children's movement with his picture appearing on a milk carton.
Hernandez, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, confessed in 2012, more than three decades after the boy disappeared. But his lawyers argued he was mentally ill and his statements were fictional ravings.
Defense attorney Harvey Fishbein complained at a hearing that Hernandez should get a sooner chance to win his freedom after being behind bars since mid-2012.
"It's about what's fair, what's right, what's human," Fishbein said.
Three jurors from the previous trial who voted for a conviction turned up in court Monday and sat with Etan's father, Stan Patz, in a show of support for the family.
The boy's body has never been found.