The murder conviction in a retrial over the 1979 disappearance and death of 6-year-old Etan Patz should be thrown out because the jury knew jurors from the first trial were sitting in court with the victim’s family, defense attorneys said Wednesday.
Pedro Hernandez was denied a fair trial because the jury was unfairly influenced by how close former jurors were to the Patz family, Alice Fontier said in court papers.
Members of the first jury who voted to convict Hernandez in 2015, a case that ended in a mistrial on an 11-1 vote, attended the second trial and often sat with Etan’s father, Stan, in court.
“In this highly emotional case, the presence of the prior jurors and their close and obvious relationship with the Patz family conveyed the message that they believed in Mr. Hernandez’s guilt,” Fontier wrote.
The Manhattan district attorney’s response is due March 22, and prosecutors had no comment Wednesday.