Overview
- The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision issued Monday, restored Pedro Hernandez’s 2017 murder conviction and rejected the appeals court’s 2025 grant of relief.
- The majority said the Second Circuit exceeded its authority under the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act by reweighing state-court rulings instead of deferring to them.
- The Second Circuit had vacated the verdict because the trial judge’s short answer to a juror note about whether to discount confessions was judged inadequate and potentially prejudicial.
- Hernandez’s conviction rested mainly on confessions he gave to police in 2012, some made before Miranda warnings, while his lawyers say severe mental illness, a low IQ and the lack of physical evidence undermine their reliability.
- The ruling leaves Hernandez serving a 25-to-life sentence, removes the likely federal path to a new trial, and closes a chapter in a case that helped shape national missing‑child practices such as milk‑carton publicity and National Missing Children’s Day.