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Retrial of Accused Etan Patz Killer to Begin in Early September

 The retrial of Pedro Hernandez should begin after Labor Day, a judge ruled.
The retrial of Pedro Hernandez should begin after Labor Day, a judge ruled.
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Steven Hirsch/Pool

MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — The retrial of Pedro Hernandez, the former SoHo bodega clerk accused of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979, will begin after Labor Day, a judge ruled Tuesday.

A mistrial was declared in Hernandez's murder trial last year, after 18 days of jury deliberations, when a lone holdout refused to convict Hernandez for the boy’s death.

Hernandez, a 55-year-old husband and father of three from New Jersey with no criminal record, was tried after confessing in 2012 to strangling Etan when he worked in a bodega on Prince Street 36-years-ago. His lawyers have argued that Hernandez's confession was false and that his statements were the delusions of a mentally ill man, coerced from police.

Etan vanished in May 1979, after he walked to the school bus in SoHo by himself for the first time. He became one of the first children to be featured on milk cartons, and his disappearance brought national attention to missing children.

Jury selection is expected to begin on Sept. 6 or 7. 

The retrial was initially slated for late February, then pushed to September because Hernandez's lead lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, had health issues.

Etan’s father, Stan Patz, has said that since sitting through Hernandez's first trial, he is convinced Hernandez is the killer.

Hernandez has been in jail since he was arrested in 2012.