The Killing of Lisa Steinberg

In January 2002, Joel Steinberg testified at a parole hearing in Southport Correctional Facility in New York. His prior release hearing, which was denied, was on February 8, 2000. Although Judge Rothwax's recommendation was against Steinberg's parole, he is still entitled to apply for release, which can be granted at anytime after a hearing and the state parole board's approval.

In his 2002 hearing, Steinberg maintained that his conviction was based solely on his failure to obtain medical aid for Lisa. He pointed out that Lisa had no "external injuries" and said that fact was clearly stated by the medical examiner. "There are no external injuries…and she (the medical examiner) says there is no trauma to the brain," Steinberg said. "That's not even equivocal," he continued, "…the hospital reports from St. Vincent's clearly show that they examined Lisa upon entry."

Steinberg was asked by parole board commission Marietta Gailor for his version of the crime. "I have more responsibility in my own heart and my own soul personally…it's very easy to realize how many things I did wrong and shouldn't have done or should have done," he said. Steinberg went on to describe his relationship with Lisa and Mitchell and said "I was extremely close to and described as a doting parent, totally involved father who maintained a friendship with these children and personally took them for continual medical care and educational care and spent all my time with them. This is a huge loss…it's very painful."

Despite his claims of dedication to Lisa and Mitchell, Steinberg's 2002 request for parole was denied. "During the course of the instant offense," the parole commissioner stated, "a vulnerable child who was in your custody lost her life due to your failure to get medical help for her in a timely manner.

Following Joel Steinberg's 2004 parole hearing, he was released from prison after serving 16 years of a maximum 25-year sentence. An uproar ensued.

Hedda Nussbaum remained under psychiatric treatment for years after the trial and slowly got her life back on track. Eventually, she joined a support group in Westchester County where today she is a counselor for battered women. She has also undergone several surgical procedures to fix broken bones in her nose and her cheeks and to repair damage to her eyes. She was interviewed in April 2002 for a newspaper article in which she said that although she remains traumatized by her experience, she feels she must move on. "They're my children and they'll always be my children," she told reporter Corey Kilgannon, "But I can't live in the past. I have to live my life now."

In October 1999, Michele Launders, Lisa's birth mother, accepted a $985,000 settlement in the litigation she brought against several New York city agencies that she said failed to protect her daughter. Her lawyer told reporters  that Michele was "relieved it was over and it gives her closure." Although the {New York Times} once reported that Steinberg had $3 million at the time of his arrest, Launders was unable to collect anything from him since he had no provable assets in later years. 

Lisa is buried in the scenic Gates of Heaven cemetery in Valhalla, New York, a suburb about forty miles north of Manhattan.  Her grave rests near a commanding oak tree whose branches seem to hover over it like the protecting arms of a mother she never knew in her brief life. The flat, gray tombstone that marks her final resting place is a scant 18" by 24", dimensions that are somehow too small for the magnitude and manner of her death.  She is remembered well in New York, the smiling face of a little girl who no one could save from inexplicable cruelty.