NEW YORK – A New York court is looking at an investigatory tool used long ago in a decades-old missing-child case as it heads toward trial: hypnosis.
Prosecutors on Monday asked a judge to bar from Pedro Hernandez's murder trial any mention of hypnosis and information obtained through it.
Hernandez is from Maple Shade, New Jersey. He has pleaded not guilty to murder in the 1979 Manhattan disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz (AY'-tahn payts), one of the first missing children pictured on milk cartons.
News accounts early in the investigation noted some bystanders and even Etan's mother were hypnotized in hopes of eliciting more detailed memories of the time around when he was last seen.
Hernandez's lawyer says the fact a witness underwent hypnosis "might be relevant."
The judge hasn't ruled.
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Reach Jennifer Peltz on Twitter @jennpeltz.
