PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This Blog is interested in false confessions because of the disturbing number of exonerations in the USA, Canada and multiple other jurisdictions throughout the world, where, in the absence of incriminating forensic evidence the conviction is based on self-incrimination – and because of the growing body of scientific research showing how vulnerable suspects are to widely used interrogation methods such as the notorious ‘Reid Technique.’ As all too many of this Blog's post have shown, I also recognize that pressure for false confessions can take many forms, up to and including physical violence, even physical and mental torture.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Hernandez confessed to police after about seven hours of questioning without being given Miranda warnings, which inform suspects about their rights, such as the right to a lawyer. Immediately afterwards, Hernandez signed a Miranda waiver and detectives asked him to “tell us again exactly what you just told us before.” In two criminal trials, Hernandez’s defense lawyers argued that he had given a false confession due to aggressive police questioning, mental illness and his low IQ. During questioning, Hernandez took his medication, including a fentanyl patch, and told police he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses."
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Harvey Fishbein, Hernandez’s attorney, said he hopes the district attorney drops the charges. “For more than 13 years, Pedro Hernandez has been in prison for a crime he did not commit,” he said. “We are grateful the Court has now given Pedro a chance to get his life back.”
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POST: "Appeals Court Overturns Murder Conviction In Etan Patz Case,' published by Criminal Justice Journalists, on July 22, 2025. (Ted Gest is president of Criminal Justice Journalists. He publishes a daily news digest on that site. Gest started covering crime and justice for his hometown newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and continued at U.S. News & World Report, where he also covered the White House, the Supreme Court and law schools. He is the author of “Crime & Politics” and the co-editor of the forthcoming “Inside the Upheaval of Journalism: Reporters Look Back on 50 Years of Covering the News.” He is a graduate of Oberlin College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.")
GIST: "A New York federal appeals court overturned the conviction of the man found guilty in the 1979 kidnapping and killing of 6-year-old Etan Patz, returning to the spotlight a case that drew national attention and changed the way missing-children cases are handled.
Pedro Hernandez, a former bodega store worker, was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in 2017 after confessing to police that he lured Etan into the store’s basement, strangled him and disposed of his body.
On Monday, a three-judge panel of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the jury in Hernandez’s trial received instructions that “would have unquestionably impacted deliberations.”
The panel said Hernandez should be released from prison or receive a new trial, the Wall Street Journal reports. Harvey Fishbein, Hernandez’s attorney, said he hopes the district attorney drops the charges.
“For more than 13 years, Pedro Hernandez has been in prison for a crime he did not commit,” he said. “We are grateful the Court has now given Pedro a chance to get his life back.”
Etan, a first-grader, disappeared while walking alone for the first time to his school bus stop in the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo on May 25, 1979.
He was never found. Etan became one of the first missing children to appear on a milk carton, and May 25 is now known as National Missing Children’s Day.
More than three decades later, in 2012, police arrived at the New Jersey home of Hernandez, following a tip from his brother-in-law.
Hernandez confessed to police after about seven hours of questioning without being given Miranda warnings, which inform suspects about their rights, such as the right to a lawyer.
Immediately afterwards, Hernandez signed a Miranda waiver and detectives asked him to “tell us again exactly what you just told us before.”
In two criminal trials, Hernandez’s defense lawyers argued that he had given a false confession due to aggressive police questioning, mental illness and his low IQ.
During questioning, Hernandez took his medication, including a fentanyl patch, and told police he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses.
The entire post can be read at:
https://crimjj.wordpress.com/2025/07/22/appeals-court-overturns-murder-conviction-in-etan-patz-case/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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