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Infamous child killer Joel Steinberg released from prison
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Updated: 10:36 AM EDT
New York City Child Killer Released From Prison
Steinberg Served 15 Years in Jail for Six-Year-Old's Beating Death
By LARRY McSHANE, AP
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NEW YORK (June 30) - Infamous child killer Joel Steinberg was released from prison Wednesday after 15 years behind bars for the 1987 beating death of his 6-year-old adopted daughter.
The former lawyer, now 63, served two-thirds of the maximum 25-year manslaughter sentence. He has continued to deny responsibility for the girl's death.
Steinberg left the upstate prison with $104 in earnings from his inmate account and was picked up in a limousine by defense attorney Darnay Hoffmann.
Lisa Steinberg died in November 1987, three days after a vicious beating in the Greenwich Village apartment where she lived with Steinberg and his former lover, Hedda Nussbaum.
Nussbaum called police after finding the 6-year-old naked, bruised and not breathing. Nussbaum, initially a co-defendant, herself had a split lip, broken ribs, a broken nose and a fractured jaw she said were inflicted by Steinberg.
According to Nussbaum's testimony, Steinberg struck Lisa for staring at him, then ignored her injuries and smoked cocaine.
Nussbaum, now 59, who said she would flee New York rather than face Steinberg again, has quit her job at a domestic violence center, the Journal News reported Wednesday. Her small white house in Carmel was empty Tuesday.
"A lot of people are not happy with the fact he's getting out. But he has done the time."
-Darnay Hoffman, Steinberg's civil attorney
Hoffmann has said he offered Steinberg a free apartment and a $250-a-week job with a local cable television show. Steinberg will have to make regular visits to a parole officer through October 2012. Now disbarred, he worked in prison as a paralegal.
The case drew national attention, pushing societal hot buttons for adoption fraud, child abuse and spousal abuse.
"A lot of people are not happy with the fact he's getting out," said Hoffman. "But he has done the time."
After Lisa's death, child abuse hot lines sprang up nationwide, and a poll found two out of three Americans felt child abuse cases needed more aggressive investigation.
"The whole issue was higher on people's consciousness than it used to be," said Dr. Kathryn Grimm, a New York-based children's advocate since 1974.
Lisa's birth mother, Michelle Launders, wouldn't discuss Steinberg's release. But she won a 1987 court fight to block Steinberg from burying the child, and ordered his name deleted from Lisa's death certificate, which now reads simply: "Baby Girl Launders, also known as Lisa."
The case defied many stereotypes about child abuse. This was a middle-class family, a lawyer and a book editor raising two children in a historic brownstone where Mark Twain once resided.
"The House of Terror," read a Daily News headline.
Nussbaum called 911 on Nov. 2, 1987, to report her daughter had vomited after choking on food.
Lisa was naked, bruised and not breathing. Her feet were black with dirt so thick it was later scraped off. Her adopted 17-month-old brother was tethered to a nearby playpen, surrounded by his own excrement and drinking spoiled milk.
Nussbaum had a split lip, broken ribs, a broken nose and a fractured jaw, all inflicted by Steinberg.
According to Nussbaum's testimony, Steinberg had struck Lisa for staring at him, then ignored her injuries and smoked cocaine.
Lisa died three days later.
The city was stunned. More than 1,000 mourners, including the late Cardinal John O'Connor, visited her tiny casket.
Lisa's brother, Travis Smiegel, was returned to his birth mother. He will start college in the fall.
"Steinberg and Nussbaum are but a footnote in this story," the Smiegel family said in a statement. "Let them face the darkness, and may the light of God continue to shine on this boy."
06/27/04 23:26 EDT
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
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Top News:
Updated: 10:36 AM EDT
New York City Child Killer Released From Prison
Steinberg Served 15 Years in Jail for Six-Year-Old's Beating Death
By LARRY McSHANE, AP
Talk About It
· Chat | Post Messages
· Top News Boards
NEW YORK (June 30) - Infamous child killer Joel Steinberg was released from prison Wednesday after 15 years behind bars for the 1987 beating death of his 6-year-old adopted daughter.
The former lawyer, now 63, served two-thirds of the maximum 25-year manslaughter sentence. He has continued to deny responsibility for the girl's death.
Steinberg left the upstate prison with $104 in earnings from his inmate account and was picked up in a limousine by defense attorney Darnay Hoffmann.
Lisa Steinberg died in November 1987, three days after a vicious beating in the Greenwich Village apartment where she lived with Steinberg and his former lover, Hedda Nussbaum.
Nussbaum called police after finding the 6-year-old naked, bruised and not breathing. Nussbaum, initially a co-defendant, herself had a split lip, broken ribs, a broken nose and a fractured jaw she said were inflicted by Steinberg.
According to Nussbaum's testimony, Steinberg struck Lisa for staring at him, then ignored her injuries and smoked cocaine.
Nussbaum, now 59, who said she would flee New York rather than face Steinberg again, has quit her job at a domestic violence center, the Journal News reported Wednesday. Her small white house in Carmel was empty Tuesday.
"A lot of people are not happy with the fact he's getting out. But he has done the time."
-Darnay Hoffman, Steinberg's civil attorney
Hoffmann has said he offered Steinberg a free apartment and a $250-a-week job with a local cable television show. Steinberg will have to make regular visits to a parole officer through October 2012. Now disbarred, he worked in prison as a paralegal.
The case drew national attention, pushing societal hot buttons for adoption fraud, child abuse and spousal abuse.
"A lot of people are not happy with the fact he's getting out," said Hoffman. "But he has done the time."
After Lisa's death, child abuse hot lines sprang up nationwide, and a poll found two out of three Americans felt child abuse cases needed more aggressive investigation.
"The whole issue was higher on people's consciousness than it used to be," said Dr. Kathryn Grimm, a New York-based children's advocate since 1974.
Lisa's birth mother, Michelle Launders, wouldn't discuss Steinberg's release. But she won a 1987 court fight to block Steinberg from burying the child, and ordered his name deleted from Lisa's death certificate, which now reads simply: "Baby Girl Launders, also known as Lisa."
The case defied many stereotypes about child abuse. This was a middle-class family, a lawyer and a book editor raising two children in a historic brownstone where Mark Twain once resided.
"The House of Terror," read a Daily News headline.
Nussbaum called 911 on Nov. 2, 1987, to report her daughter had vomited after choking on food.
Lisa was naked, bruised and not breathing. Her feet were black with dirt so thick it was later scraped off. Her adopted 17-month-old brother was tethered to a nearby playpen, surrounded by his own excrement and drinking spoiled milk.
Nussbaum had a split lip, broken ribs, a broken nose and a fractured jaw, all inflicted by Steinberg.
According to Nussbaum's testimony, Steinberg had struck Lisa for staring at him, then ignored her injuries and smoked cocaine.
Lisa died three days later.
The city was stunned. More than 1,000 mourners, including the late Cardinal John O'Connor, visited her tiny casket.
Lisa's brother, Travis Smiegel, was returned to his birth mother. He will start college in the fall.
"Steinberg and Nussbaum are but a footnote in this story," the Smiegel family said in a statement. "Let them face the darkness, and may the light of God continue to shine on this boy."
06/27/04 23:26 EDT
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
HG Pennypacker
New member
Obviously, it's outrageous that he's not in jail for life, but what do you propose we do about this?
HG Pennypacker said:
Kill the motherfucker. He doesn't have the right to breath. Beat him to death in the same manner, only more severe, than he did to that little girl. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Fucking bastard. If we tortured fucks like this, this kind of shit wouldn't happen nearly as often. Politically correct pussies.
HG Pennypacker
New member
If you're referring to me, why don't you come here and take care of it then? I have a daughter and one on the way, so why would I risk my freedom to take care of a scumbag who even the prison system didn't take out of the picture?
HG Pennypacker
New member
biteme said:
Well....my thought originally was that normally he would have been taken care of by other prisoners, prison guards or the cops. For some reason, I guess it was hands off on him. This was 1988 when he was convicted. We weren't quite as politically correct as a society, back then, as we are now.
HG Pennypacker
New member
biteme said:
What separates me from a lot of the people on this board is that I consider the consequences of my actions. Getting thrown in jail for doing something to a scumbag does my kids no good at all, because while there are thousands of Joel Steinberg's out there ready to prey on them, who is going to protect them and provide for them while i'm incarcerated?
the jury was hung on the murder charge; he got 25 years, the max for manslaughter, and under NY law, he had to serve 2/3 of the sentence.
He was denied parole 5 times.
He was denied parole 5 times.
HG Pennypacker said:
I understand that, I'm afraid as well to take action in many instances where I would have rushed in when I was younger. I don't know the solution, I would hope there are people out there with little to risk that would take care of these assholes. A vigilante group maybe. My point is that public apathy is becoming a dagerous thing. People are afraid to get involved because of the possible conseqences and risks. So we live in fear of scumbags, it ought not to be this way.
I used to call my Mom 'Hedda'.
She didn't really like that.
She didn't really like that.
HG Pennypacker
New member
biteme said:
I think the problem is that with the way the judicial system is these days, you never know what wackjob judge your going to be dealing with. Half the time, the one who rids the earth of slime like this guy gets more prison time than he did.
Same reason i've never contested my child support payments. I've had 2 lawyers tell me I have a good case to get my support reduced because my ex makes as much if not more money than me, yet I could get stuck with a judge who doubles my payments, just because they can.
Becoming said:
It is a price worth paying.
Better to have this happen than to have you clubbed over the head and jailed indefinitely for opposing the local government.
Becoming said:
Steinberg should hav enever gotten out; agreed.
But the process is what it is - they could not convict him on a murder charge. There was no premeditation, and the jury couldn;t make up its mind on a 'depraved indifference' case.
He got convicted of manslaughter and received the maximum sentence: 25 years. NY state law allows for release after 2/3 time served. If that pisses you off, well, you'll be angrier to know the NY state prison jails are filled with drug offenders due to the toughest drug laws in the US.
The point is, the system worked. And one should not look at 17 years of jail and say, "no biggie". There is no punishment to bring the girl back, so what are we really asking for? revenge? that's the height of uncivilized and a poor societal precedent.
Attempts to create "special" laws for situations like this is what results in idiocy like hate crime laws, terrorism charges against people like Allen iverson, and all sorts of other unintended nonsense. Prosecutors are not know for discretion.
This is a case of the system working as designed.
MattTheSkywalker said:
So are you suggesting that he be allowed to walk the streets again a free man, just because the system worked, as you say. We have different opinions. I do believe in justice. Justice has not been served in this case. I believe it will be. Someone will kill him.
biteme said:
Then that would be murder.
Two wrongs don't make a left orb.
You just want revenge - revenge and justice are not the same thing.
Revenge is barbarism, justice is a system of moral law. If you take the principle you are advocating and expand it, lawlessness is the outcome.
Robert Jan
New member
He wouldn't even have gotten 15 years in Holland.
biteme said:
Orb,
You could enjoy that pride from the confines of Attica state prison. You showed us!
He should have probably been convicted of murder. He wasn't. But if everyone took the law into their own hands when they were "wronged", we'd have no justice at all.
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