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NYTimes
June 30, 2004
Steinberg Is Freed, 16 Years After Killing Girl
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Joel B. Steinberg will be released from prison today, 16 years after he was convicted of beating to death 6-year-old Lisa Steinberg. Mr. Steinberg, 63, a former lawyer in Manhattan, is scheduled to leave the Southport Correctional Facility in Pine City, N.Y.
Under New York State law, some inmates who have served two-thirds of their maximum sentence without any infractions are automatically granted conditional release. Mr. Steinberg had been eligible for parole five times before, but it had been repeatedly denied on the grounds that he had not shown remorse.
In November 1987, police went to Mr. Steinberg's apartment in Greenwich Village and found Lisa beaten into unconsciousness and a 17- month-old boy tied to his playpen with twine. The girl died four days later. Mr. Steinberg and his companion, Hedda Nussbaum, were initially charged with attempted murder.
During a televised trial that attracted national attention, it was revealed that Mr. Steinberg had illegally adopted Lisa from her biological mother, Michele Launders. Prosecutors described Mr. Steinberg as a drug addict who abused Lisa and Ms. Nussbaum, and had been indifferent to their suffering.
The charges against Ms. Nussbaum were dropped when she agreed to testify against Mr. Steinberg. She said that he had delivered the fatal blow to Lisa because he could not stand the girl staring at him.
Although Mr. Steinberg had also been charged with second-degree murder, the jury convicted Mr. Steinberg of first-degree manslaughter.
Ms. Nussbaum spent many years after the trial working as a paralegal at My Sister's Place, an organization for battered women and children in White Plains, N.Y.
Mr. Steinberg's release does not end his troubles. Last year, a judge ruled that Mr. Steinberg owed Ms. Launders $15 million in damages for her daughter's death. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Mr. Steinberg's release concerns newspaper reports that he might have a job as a host of a public access television talk show, "New York Confidential." A spokesman for the show told Newsday that Mr. Steinberg will start as an intern working off the air and will earn $250 a week.
After the arrests of Mr. Steinberg and Ms. Nussbaum, the 17-month-old boy who was found in the Greenwich Village apartment along with Lisa Steinberg was given by authorities to his biological mother. That boy, Travis Smigiel, now a young man, is headed to college this fall, according to one of his relatives.
Mr. Smigiel's family provided a statement yesterday anticipating Mr. Steinberg's release from prison. "Do not search for justice," the statement reads. "The State of New York has been satisfied. The penalty has been paid. There is no more we can do."
June 30, 2004
Steinberg Is Freed, 16 Years After Killing Girl
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Joel B. Steinberg will be released from prison today, 16 years after he was convicted of beating to death 6-year-old Lisa Steinberg. Mr. Steinberg, 63, a former lawyer in Manhattan, is scheduled to leave the Southport Correctional Facility in Pine City, N.Y.
Under New York State law, some inmates who have served two-thirds of their maximum sentence without any infractions are automatically granted conditional release. Mr. Steinberg had been eligible for parole five times before, but it had been repeatedly denied on the grounds that he had not shown remorse.
In November 1987, police went to Mr. Steinberg's apartment in Greenwich Village and found Lisa beaten into unconsciousness and a 17- month-old boy tied to his playpen with twine. The girl died four days later. Mr. Steinberg and his companion, Hedda Nussbaum, were initially charged with attempted murder.
During a televised trial that attracted national attention, it was revealed that Mr. Steinberg had illegally adopted Lisa from her biological mother, Michele Launders. Prosecutors described Mr. Steinberg as a drug addict who abused Lisa and Ms. Nussbaum, and had been indifferent to their suffering.
The charges against Ms. Nussbaum were dropped when she agreed to testify against Mr. Steinberg. She said that he had delivered the fatal blow to Lisa because he could not stand the girl staring at him.
Although Mr. Steinberg had also been charged with second-degree murder, the jury convicted Mr. Steinberg of first-degree manslaughter.
Ms. Nussbaum spent many years after the trial working as a paralegal at My Sister's Place, an organization for battered women and children in White Plains, N.Y.
Mr. Steinberg's release does not end his troubles. Last year, a judge ruled that Mr. Steinberg owed Ms. Launders $15 million in damages for her daughter's death. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Mr. Steinberg's release concerns newspaper reports that he might have a job as a host of a public access television talk show, "New York Confidential." A spokesman for the show told Newsday that Mr. Steinberg will start as an intern working off the air and will earn $250 a week.
After the arrests of Mr. Steinberg and Ms. Nussbaum, the 17-month-old boy who was found in the Greenwich Village apartment along with Lisa Steinberg was given by authorities to his biological mother. That boy, Travis Smigiel, now a young man, is headed to college this fall, according to one of his relatives.
Mr. Smigiel's family provided a statement yesterday anticipating Mr. Steinberg's release from prison. "Do not search for justice," the statement reads. "The State of New York has been satisfied. The penalty has been paid. There is no more we can do."
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