It has been nearly 17 years since Lisa Steinberg, 6, who had been illegally adopted by Joel Steinberg and live-in girlfriend Hedda Nussbaum, died of brain injuries from a beating by Steinberg. USA Today reports that Steinberg soon will be released from prison, even though he was denied parole five times – most recently in January. He will work for a local cable TV show called New York Confidential. The case “showed graphically that child abuse crossed class lines and shed light on the issue of domestic violence,” says USA Today. Steinberg was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years.
The case “riveted public attention on the need to improve child-safety standards and highlighted that there were serious deficiencies in the city’s child-welfare system, says Jennifer March-Joly of the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York. It wasn’t until years later, after the beating death of another 6-year-old girl, that New York City started to overhaul its child-welfare system.
Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-06-15-steinberg-usat_x.htm