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WASHINGTON — <\/span>The Supreme Court<\/a> on Monday reinstated a murder conviction<\/a> in the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz.<\/p>\n The justices, by a 6-3 vote, granted an appeal from New York prosecutors who had urged them to undo a federal appeals court decision that overturned the verdict<\/a>. The three liberal justices dissented.<\/p>\n Prosecutors had been preparing to try the man, Pedro Hernandez, for a third time. His first trial ended in a mistrial.<\/p>\n The unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed Hernandez\u2019 murder and kidnapping conviction in the second trial because of how the judge had answered a question from jurors. <\/p>\n Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had called the basis for overturning the conviction \u201ca slender reed\u201d that essentially ignored a five-month-long trial with 66 witnesses.<\/p>\n The justices agreed, in an unsigned opinion, that federal courts should not second-guess state courts under a 1996 federal law that was intended to reduce federal court oversight of state criminal trials.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Second Circuit exceeded its authority in holding that Hernandez is entitled to relief,\u201d the justices wrote.<\/p>\n Hernandez, 64, has been serving a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.<\/p>\n Bragg hailed the high court\u2019s decision. \u201cThis office has remained steadfast in its pursuit of justice for Etan and the Patz family and will continue to stand by this important conviction,\u201d Bragg, a Democrat, said in a statement.<\/p>\n Hernandez\u2019 lawyers said they were \u201cterribly disappointed\u201d by the ruling. \u201cWe firmly believe that an innocent man is in jail for a crime that he did not commit,\u201d attorneys Harvey Fishbein and Alice Fontier said.<\/p>\n Hernandez admitted to the crime under police questioning, but his lawyers say he confessed falsely<\/a> because of a mental illness<\/a> that sometimes made him hallucinate. They emphasized that the admission came after police queried him for about seven hours before reading him his rights and recording the interview. Hernandez then repeated his confession on tape, at least twice.<\/p>\n Etan vanished while walking to his downtown Manhattan school bus stop on May 25, 1979. Hernandez worked at a nearby convenience shop at the time, but the Maple Shade, New Jersey, resident didn\u2019t become a suspect until 2012. <\/p>\n Etan was among the first missing children ever to appear on milk cartons, and the anniversary of his disappearance became National Missing Children\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n Hernandez already has been tried twice. A jury deadlocked in 2015<\/a>, and then a different panel of jurors convicted him at a 2017 retrial. <\/a><\/p>\n During deliberations, the 2017 jurors asked a complicated question: If they decided Hernandez didn\u2019t confess voluntarily when he hadn\u2019t been read his rights yet, must they disregard his other confessions? The then-judge responded simply, \u201cthe answer is no.\u201d The jury went on to convict.<\/p>\n In overturning that verdict, the appeals court said the jury\u2019s question should have gotten a more fulsome answer, including the possibility of discounting all the confessions. <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report from New York.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n