Pedro Hernandez is accused of killing the 6-year-old in New York City in 1979.
The jury deciding the fate of the man accused of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz decades ago was ordered Wednesday to continue deliberating after they said they were deadlocked.
Keith Bedford / Reuters
The New York City jury has been deliberating since April 15.
The judge then told them to keep trying to reach a consensus. The decision was criticized by Hernandez's defense attorneys, who said the case should be ruled a mistrial.
"Any charge to them at this point, even sending a note in to them saying, 'Would you like to try harder?' is inherently coercive," lawyer Alice Fontier told the AP. "We believe that a mistrial is warranted, and any further proceedings after that are over the strenuous objections of the defense."
Patz vanished on May 25, 1979 while walking to school. His body has never been found. His case made national headlines and he became the first missing child ever featured on a milk carton.
In 2012, a family member told police that Hernandez had spoken of killing a child in the 1970s, NY1 reported.
Hernandez then confessed to the crime, and jurors were shown videos of four confessions he gave to authorities, according to NY1.
Five people also testified he had told them he had killed someone.
However, prosecutors have no physical evidence linking Hernandez to the crime, the AP reported.
Defense attorneys argued that Hernandez suffers from mental illness and pointed to differences between his statements as evidence, according to NY1.
Pool New / Reuters
LINK: Long-Lost Evidence In Etan Patz Case Found In Police Station
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1PZ4W1g
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