The jury deliberating in the murder trial of a man accused of kidnapping and killing 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979 says it is deadlocked.

Jurors have been deliberating since April 15. They said Wednesday that they have been unable to reach a unanimous decision in the trial of Pedro Hernandez.

The judge is telling them to continue deliberating, though he sent them home for the afternoon.

"We have an intelligent, hardworking jury that understands that they would like to resolve this case as much as anyone would like to resolve it and they can't," said Hernandez's attorney Harvey Fishbein.

Fishbein called the judge's instructions that the jury continue deliberating "coercive" and said he would ask for a mistrial.  

Hernandez made a surprise confession in 2012. He told authorities he choked Etan in the basement of a convenience store where he worked and dumped the body a few blocks away.

But prosecutors had no physical evidence linking Hernandez to the crime. Etan's body was never found. Defense attorneys suggested another man had committed the crime and said Hernandez was mentally ill.

The case has baffled authorities for decades.