Cyrus Vance prosecuted Pedro Hernandez twice. An appeals court overturned the conviction, ruling that the trial judge should not have let jurors consider an improper confession.

The 1979 disappearance of Etan Patz was one of the nation’s most notorious missing child cases. The six-year-old Manhattan resident was among the first children whose disappearance and likeness were publicized on milk cartons across the country.