Etan Patz case is latest with extensive jury deliberations
May 8, 2015, 1:12 PM
FILE - This May 28, 2012, file photo shows a newspaper with a photograph of Etan Patz at a makeshift memorial in the SoHo neighborhood of New York where Patz lived before his disappearance on May 25, 1979. The murder trial of Pedro Hernandez, the man accused in the child's disappearance, ended Friday, May 8, 2015 with the jury hopelessly deadlocked after 18 days of deliberations, leaving unresolved a case that has haunted New York City for 36 years. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
A mistrial was declared Friday in the murder trial of the man accused in the disappearance of first-grader Etan Patz with the jury deadlocked after 18 days of deliberations. Jurors said for a third time they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict in the case against Pedro Hernandez. The Maple Shade, New Jersey, man was a teenage stock clerk at a Manhattan convenience store when 6-year-old Etan disappeared on May 25, 1979.
Here are some other cases with long deliberations:
— Jurors deliberated for 20 days before acquitting white separatist Randy Weaver and a co-defendant of killing a federal marshal in a 1992 shootout after a siege at Weaver’s cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
— In a notorious fraud case against former Tyco International Ltd. CEO Dennis L. Kozlowski and chief financial officer Mark Swartz, a Manhattan jury was entering its 12th day of deliberations in 2004 when a judge declared a mistrial after one juror reported getting an intimidating letter and phone call. Deliberations in a retrial the next year went another 11 days before the ex-execs were convicted of looting the company of $600 million.
— Two juries deadlocked after more than 18 days of deliberating in the murder case against Lyle and Erik Menendez, brothers accused of killing their parents in their mansion in Beverly Hills, California. Ultimately, both brothers were convicted after 20 days of deliberations in a 1996 retrial.
— After three former Oakland, California, police officers were accused of beating and framing suspects and falsifying reports, jurors deliberated for 56 days in 2003 before deadlocking on most counts and acquitting on several others. Deliberations in a 2005 retrial spanned more than a month before a jury again deadlocked on most counts and acquitted on others. Prosecutors decided against a third trial.
— A federal mob racketeering case against John A. “Junior” Gotti ended in hung juries and mistrials four times, the last after 11 days of deliberations in 2009. After the fourth mistrial, prosecutors dropped the case.
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