Prosecutors want jury to visit Etan Patz scene
Etan Patz, who went missing May 25, 1979, near his home in New York's SoHo neighborhood, appears in this undated file photo. Credit: AP
Prosecutors in the Etan Patz case want jurors to visit the SoHo neighborhood where the boy disappeared at the retrial next year of Pedro Hernandez.
Judge Maxwell Wiley said he was taking the request under advisement during a brief hearing Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Hernandez, a former bodega worker, is charged with strangling 6-year-old Etan in a SoHo basement in 1979. His first trial ended in a hung jury, and his retrial is scheduled for February.
Harvey Fishbein, Hernandez’s lawyer, said he did not object to a site visit as long as steps are taken to make sure jurors understand changes that have occurred in the neighborhood over three decades.
Wiley said he has also received a defense motion to dismiss the charges based on the loss of potential defense witnesses over time, and other motions.
The judge set another hearing for Dec. 15.
'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.
'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.
