Joel Steinberg (born May 25, 1941) is a sacked New York criminal defense lawyer who attracted the attention of the international media when he was accused of murder and convicted of accidental murder on November 1, 1987, the subsequent beating and death of a six-year-old girl, Elizabeth ("Lisa"), whom she and her partner living in Hedda Nussbaum have been illegally adopted. Steinberg is reported to have been employed by a single mother named Michele Launders to find a suitable host family for Lisa, but instead he takes the boy home and raises him with Nussbaum. He never submitted an official adoption letter and the child was not legally adopted.
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Joel Steinberg grew up in the Bronx and Yonkers. He graduated from Fordham University in 1962. After graduating, Steinberg studied at law school but left in 1964 and joined the US Air Force in 1965. After his military career, he returned to law school and was accepted at a bar in New York. Due to the ongoing Vietnam War, the lawyers whose studies were disrupted by the conscription were exempt from the examination requirements.
Maps Joel Steinberg
Crime and punishment
Joel Steinberg shared Greenwich Village, Manhattan apartment with Lisa, Mitchell (a younger boy who was also illegally adopted), and his life partner Hedda Nussbaum. Steinberg was under the influence of crack cocaine when he hit Lisa in the head on November 1, 1987. After the attack, he left the apartment to party with friends; Hedda finally contacted 911. After the police arrived at the scene, Lisa was transported from the apartment to Saint Vincent Hospital. The boy remained in the hospital for three days and died after being excluded from life support. In addition to Lisa's deadly attacks, Mitchell and Nussbaum both showed signs of physical abuse at the hands of Steinberg, and the well-preserved and unkempt appearance of Nussbaum sparked a media uproar that accompanied Lisa's death.
In exchange for testifying against Steinberg, Nussbaum was not charged for events related to Lisa's death. Nussbaum was alone in the apartment with an unconscious and bloody Lisa for more than ten hours without seeking medical attention for the girl. In the Steinberg court for twelve weeks, his defense argued that widespread Nussbaum injuries, including severe facial damage and permanent spinal damage, resulted from a consensual sadomasochistic relationship between the two defendants. His lawyer claimed that Nussbaum's decision to stay with Steinberg even though he became a victim of domestic violence was a sign of a battered female syndrome.
In New York State at that time, first-degree murder only applies to those who kill the police or have committed murder while already serving the sentence for the previous murder. The jury can not punish Steinberg for more serious second-degree murder, but he punishes him for a lighter first-degree murder charge. Judge Harold Rothwax subsequently sentenced him with the maximum sentence available to the allegation - 8 1 / 3 to 25 years in state prison.
On two occasions, Steinberg was denied parole, mainly because he never expressed regret over the murder. However, on 30 June 2004, he was released under the law of the "good times" of the state, which mandates the release of prisoners who show good behavior while in jail after serving two-thirds or more of the maximum possible penalty. The State of New York has since since increased this ratio to six per seven of the maximum for people convicted of violence. Steinberg has spent most of his imprisonment in New York State's supermax prison, Southport Correctional Facility, perhaps to prevent him from being attacked by other inmates.
After his release, Steinberg moved to Harlem, where he worked in the construction industry. In 2006, he maintained his innocence. Mitchell reunited with his biological mother, Nicole Bridget Smigiel.
Claim
On January 16, 2007, the New York Supreme Court, Appeals Division (New York mid-level appeals court) confirmed a $ 15 million award against Steinberg to Michele Launders, Lisa's mother. In his opinion, the court rejected the position that Steinberg, acting as his own lawyer, filed:
- [F] or Steinberg to fire 8 to 10 hours before Lisa's death as "at most eight hours of pain and suffering" or as she alternately states, the loss of " quick awareness" (emphasis given), indicating that he has absolutely no human empathy or emotion now because he was almost 20 years ago when he was tried for Lisa's murder. As a parent and, no doubt, most adults who have traveled with young children can prove, a frequently heard question, "did we get there?" is a clear illustration that, the more anticipated an event or goal becomes, it seems the slower the passage of time in a child's mind. For Lisa, lying on the bathroom floor, her body aching from bruises of "varying ages," her brain swelled from her father's "shocking blow", 8 to 10 hours so that irritably dismissed by Steinberg must have felt like eternity as she waited and wondered when someone will come to comfort him and help make his pain disappear.
References
Further reading
- Johnson, Joyce (April 1, 1991). What Lisa knows: the truth and lies of the Steinberg case . Kensington Pub. Corp. ISBN: 978-0-8217-3387-5 . Retrieved September 10 2011 .
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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