Brave or Stupid? Lone Juror Causes Mistrial in Etan Patz Abduction-Murder Case

[alcibiades_mystery]

The New York media is currently dissecting the hung jury in the Etan Patz abduction-murder case. Etan Patz, of course, was the six year old who disappeared off a Manhattan street in 1979; his murder is often heralded as the beginning of the modern era of parenting and childhood, the moment when stranger abduction and the threat of pedophilia began to loom over American childhood.

Prosecutors and police finally thought they had the case solved when they arrested Pedro Hernandez, who had confessed to the crime, apparently multiple times. But his defense argued that Hernandez is simply mentally ill and delusional, that his confessions are simply a manifestation of his mental illness. Eleven jurors rejected that argument. But one wasn't convinced.

And against the other jurors and, really, the judgment of a whole city, he held out. For eighteen days, the 35 year old held out. There's not enough evidence, he said. He couldn't convict on the confessions alone. The other evidence was not persuasive, he said. And he held out, and hung the jury.

Now his name and image are in all the New York tabloids. He's portrayed as the villain of the trial, perhaps more so than Hernandez himself.

Brave or stupid? I'm not sure, but there's something distinctly admirable in his stand: prosecutors have to meet their burden.

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Such confessions must be backed up by hard evidence...

so I might have discarded them, too .

But, although I remember the case well when it happened, I haven't read much about the trial and don't know what his objections to the other evidence is.

[drray23]

2. he was courageous to do that.

I also believe its the right thing to do. We had so many people on death row solely because of faulty witnesses or coerced confessions that if there is not any other tangible corroborating evidence, juries should refuse to convict.

[avebury]

3. Brave - no doubt about it

Given the history of successful prosecution of people (even put on death row in some instances) later found to be innocent, I would have a hard time voting to convict solely on a confession. Particularly given Scalia's attitude that later proof of innocence is not sufficient to overturn a death penalty conviction if the defended had his/her day in court. Call me skeptical but I feel like the justice system is rigged way too often.

I really don't think that a DA would really want me on a jury panel of a case they were prosecuting.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. Agreed

I consider it my duty as a citizen to really hold the prosecution to a very high burden. It's no doubt very difficult to apply that principle in practice, though.

[former9thward]

4. It seems there was room for reasonable doubt.

This is from a 2004 civil case brought by the Patz family against another man.

Judge Rules That a Convicted Molester, Now in Prison, Is Responsible for Etan Patz's Death

A judge in Manhattan has ruled that a convicted pedophile serving time in a Pennsylvania prison is responsible for the death of Etan Patz, the 6-year-old SoHo schoolboy whose disappearance in 1979 haunted New York City, drew national attention and helped galvanize the missing-children's movement.

In a one-paragraph decision dated April 19, Justice Barbara R. Kapnick of State Supreme Court granted a judgment in the wrongful death lawsuit by the Patz family against the defendant, Jose A. Ramos, because he did not comply with an order she made more than a year ago to answer questions under oath about Etan's disappearance. The decision became public yesterday.

Mr. Ramos, 59, has been the lead suspect in the case for years, but scant evidence has ever been discovered to link him to the disappearance of Etan, who was on his way to school on May 25, 1979, when he was last seen. Etan's case was among the first involving missing children to attract national -- even international -- attention. Etan vanished in a time before pictures of missing children regularly appeared on milk cartons and billboards, and his case helped build a movement. In recognition of the Patz case, President Ronald Reagan declared May 25 National Missing Children's Day.

Mr. Ramos is in prison in Dallas, Pa., for sexually molesting an 8-year-old boy in an unrelated case.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/05/nyregion/judge-rules-that-convicted-molester-now-prison-responsible-for-etan-patz-s-death.html

[TeeYiYi]

8. Interesting...

So far, there has not been enough evidence in the case to charge Mr. Ramos criminally. But evidence used in the civil suit included statements by prison informers that Mr. Ramos told a cellmate that he had taken Etan to his apartment and sexually assaulted him. ''Etan is dead, there is no body, and there will never be a body,'' the cellmate is said to have quoted Mr. Ramos as saying.

Mr. Ramos was an acquaintance of a woman who worked for the Patzes as a baby sitter. In May 1979, he lived in a tenement on the Lower East Side, about a mile from the family.

Mr. Ramos once admitted to investigators that he was with Etan on the day the boy vanished, but he denied abducting him or killing him. In 2000, the police searched the building where Mr. Ramos had lived at the time of the disappearance, but turned up nothing.

This story makes the OP all the more interesting. It would seem that the lone juror did the right thing.

TYY

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Given the details in the article, I say brave.

Too much reasonable doubt, including a possible other suspect.

[JonLP24]

6. Or smart

with knowing absolutely nothing about the case the key is reasonable doubt.