A View From the Sketch Artist Seat: Pedro Hernandez Trials

I am writing about the very public Pedro Hernandez case — the man just convicted of murdering 6-year-old Etan Patz, who disappeared in SoHo in 1979 on his way to a bus stop. Since that day, the boy’s family and friends have been swamped with press. When I asked Stan Patz, the boy’s father, for an interview, he recognized me from an email I had sent. However, he was offended that I would ask to speak with him at the sentencing hearing. He appeared overwhelmed by the large amount of press, and said that he did not see the point of telling his side of the story in a book — especially to a “young reporter” (I’m 30 and a lawyer as well as a reporter). Given that he has been hounded by the press for over thirty years, his reaction was not surprising to me.

When Hernandez was arrested in 2012, he confessed after a seven-hour interrogation that he strangled Etan Patz. Hernandez has an IQ of 67, a factor that could have led to a false confession. I’m investigating that possibility. I didn’t say this to Mr. Patz; I asked for a general interview about the case. Then again, it doesn’t seem like Patz would be the best person to answer that question.

Hernandez was convicted in his second trial, after a hung jury in the first. I reached out to the lone holdout juror from the first trial, Adam Sirois. He agreed to an interview, but has had to cancel multiple times. I hope to speak with him sometime this week. His reasoning for refusing to convict may shed light on the case. I also want to ask him what sort of backlash he has experienced, and check whether it is true that Mr. Patz wrote him a stern letter expressing his disagreement after the trial.

To get a different perspective on the first trial and everyone involved, I spoke with two court artists. Jane Rosenberg and Elizabeth Williams each covered part of the months-long proceedings and drew sketches that ran in the national media. To do that, they needed to pay constant attention to the action and emotions in the courtroom. While each of them told me that she did not see the entire trial, and that her memory was less than reliable, each was able to give personal observations of the trial. “I do remember his father was always there. It’s pretty clear to me who I have sketch — there are important people in the cases and I have to sketch the witness because they may do something interesting. I just have to pay attention to what the scene is at the moment.” Williams says that she remembers personally reacting to the way the attorneys told the story, “I thought it was interesting how they described Soho. When I was in art school our RA told us don’t go south of Houston Street…it was full of graffiti and not very nice…it was a funky, funky area.”

Williams also said some days of the trial, Patz’s sister — who is in a wheelchair — came to support Etan’s father who was there daily. However, because Mr. Patz was such a fixture at each trial, he was very important to draw. “There’s also things that your news desk tells you to focus on,” she said. “They wanted a picture of of Mr. Patz, so I drew that.” Williams also said she remembers that the deliberations, which Hernandez’s wife and daughter attended — were very long and confusing for everyone. “They were so long it was a ridiculous,” she said. “We didn’t know who the juror was who was the holdout. We didn’t know there was a holdout juror. I know Hernandez was just very placid — no reaction to anything.”

“I remember his mother on the witness stand crying,” said Rosenberg. “I remember the guy Hernandez was always stone-faced. He never once showed any emotion. He sat there like a blob.”

Both women remember when the prosecution played the video of Hernandez’s confession, which showed Hernandez acting out the murder. “The drawing I did showed how he strangled him with his bare hands,” said Rosenberg. Her sketch shows the prosecutor — Joan Illuzi-Orbon — pointing at a video of Hernandez, who is demonstrating a choking motion on his own neck. In the foreground, Hernandez’s reacts to the video, his head down, and his eyes downcast, his face expressionless. Harvey Fishbein, his curly-haired defense attorney in a blue suit, is sitting next to Hernandez, also expressionless. “With him showing the choke hold on the video tape — that was very unusual for him to demonstrate how he choked him,” she said. Rosenberg said while she found the confession convincing, she doesn’t know who is telling the truth. “That doesn’t mean I know for a fact whether he was telling the truth or whether the defense attorney made it up. I don’t know the truth,” she said.

Each also reflected on the hysteria behind the trial, and the pressure both sides felt to win their case. “The first day, the opening statements, it’s always a little intense,” said Williams. “The courtroom was packed. It was a really full. I remember that.” She said the press coverage brought added complications, “There is intensity there with any big gigantic press trial.”

In trial №2, the heavy press coverage continued. This February 14, the jury convicted Hernandez. However, Judge Maxwell Wiley has postponed Hernandez’s sentencing for an investigation into whether there were unfair influences on the jury. Hernandez’s attorneys argue that the press is a huge problem when trying to conduct a fair trial. Josh Dubin, a jury specialist for Hernandez’s defense team, gave a media interview in front of the courtroom on February 28, saying, “We had grave concerns about the extent of media coverage, how detrimental it was to Mr. Hernandez and the extent to which jurors from the first trial had been public advocates for Mr. Hernandez’s guilt.”

During the hearing to postpone sentencing, at least two former jurors sat with Mr. Patz, talking and hugging, as if they were close friends. Hernandez’s defense says they believe the presence of the jurors can be intimidating — especially if the jurors in the new trial believe Hernandez may not be guilty. Both sides will submit motions; the judge is due to rule next month.

As for the sketch artists, Rosenberg and Williams say that fairness and impartiality are important in a court case, no matter what your role. “I try not to make a habit of interacting with subjects that I’m drawing,” says Williams. “You need to stay objective.” The question hanging over the case now is whether the jury succeeded in preserving objectivity.