Hedda Nussbaum
Hedda Nussbaum (born circa 1942) is an American woman whose adopted daughter Lisa died of physical abuse in 1987, sparking a lengthy and controversial trial and media frenzy -- the legal case was one of the first that was extensively televised "gavel to gavel."[1] Supporters characterized Nussbaum as a victim of horrific domestic abuse at the hands of her common-law husband Joel Steinberg. Critics suggested she was a consensual partner in a sado-masochistic relationship and an unprosecuted conspirator in her adopted daughter's beating death.
Biography
Early life and career
Nussbaum had been an editor and author of children's books at Random House. In 1975, she met Steinberg, a defense attorney who sometimes handled adoptions.[2] From 1976, Nussbaum and her Steinberg lived in a brownstone apartment in New York City's Greenwich Village. Her 1977 book, Plants Do Amazing Things, was dedicated, in part, "to Joel, my everyday inspiration."[3]
Due to bruises and other injures, friends and colleagues suspected that Nussbaum was the victim of domestic violence, while neighbors later opined to police that Nussbaum and Steinberg were active participants in a "some kind of a sexual sadomasochistic game."[4] Friends occassionally offered to help if Nussbaum was being abused, but she declined their offers of intervention or aid and refused to implicate Steinberg. After extended absences from work, Random House put Nussbaum on consulting editor status in 1982.
In 1981, Nussbaum and Steinberg illegally adopted a two-year-old girl they named Lisa. The girl's mother had paid Steinberg a $500 legal fee to place the child with a Roman Catholic family.[5] Nussbaum and Steinberg also lived with a toddler they named Mitchell, also similarly "adopted."
Nussbaum's denial of the danger she and her children lived in is typical of some chronically maltreated persons; see battered person syndrome. She fled from the home six times, only to return. In her 2005 book, Surviving Intimate Terrorism, Nussbaum mentions the medical theory that trauma, especially prolonged trauma, can elicit the body's production of opoids that produce mental and physical numbness. This numbness further reduced her ability to think and act clearly, akin to "Stockholm Syndrome", when victims identify with their abusers.
Death of Lisa and trial
At roughly 7.00 p.m. on 01 November 1987, according to initial police reports, Steinberg rendered Lisa unconscious with a severe blow to the head. Nussbaum remained alone with the dying child for roughly ten hours, failing to notify police or medical personnel. Steinberg departed and returned several times, sometimes freebasing cocaine. According to initial police reports, Nussbaum didn't notify authorities because she believed Steinberg had supernatural healing powers.[6] At roughly 6.00 a.m. the next morning, Lisa stopped breathing. Shortly thereafter, Steinberg telephoned 911 at Nussbaum's urging.
After Lisa's death, Mitchell was discovered in squalid conditions. His birth mother, Nicole Smiegel, had waived her parental rights, but as no adoption ever occurred, she was ultimately granted custody of her son.
When authorities learned of Lisa's death, they initially charged Nussbaum and Stenberg. However, charges were later dropped against Nussbaum. She agreed to testify against Steinberg, and medical examination revealed that Nussbaum was herself anemic, malnourished, and suffering from broken bones and chronic infections -- Nussbaum was thought too injured to have seriously wounded Lisa.
Nussbaum's courtroom testimony against Steinberg earned substantial mass media attention, due in part to her face showing obvious evidence of physical trauma. There were also indications, as Nussbaum testified in court, that Lisa Steinberg was sexually abused by people outside of her immediate family. During the trial, medical experts testified that while Lisa's injuries were severe, she would have almost certainly survived if given prompt medical treatment.[7]
Steinberg was convicted on charges of second-degree manslaughter. He served 15 years at the Southport Correctional Facility in Pine City, N.Y., and was was released in 2004.
Later life
In the years that followed Lisa's death, Nussbaum worked to rebuild her life and had numerous reconstructive plastic surgeries. She also co-facilitated a support group for battered women for about eight years and later worked as a paralegal for an organization that helps battered women.
In 1995 she began giving talks about abuse at colleges and shelters; but when Steinberg was released from prison in 2004, she receded from public attention until the publication of her book a year and a half later.
Analyses
According to D. Kelly Weisberg,[8] the Nussbaum case polarized feminist scholars and activists. Some saw Nussbaum as an archetypal victim of domestic violence whose actions were controlled and restricted not only by her abusive husband, but also by the culture at large that denies the seriousness or abuse in the home. Other leading feminists -- notably Susan Brownmiller -- suggested that while Nussbaum suffered violence from her husband, she may have shared full culpability for Lisa's death.
Books by Hedda Nussbaum (incomplete)
- Plants Do Amazing Things (1977)
- Animals Build Amazing Homes (1979)
- Surviving Intimate Terrorism (September 12, 2005) - ISBN 1413756522
References
- ^ Fergeson, Robert A. 2008. The Trial in American Life. University of Chicago Press, p. 282.
- ^ Interview With Hedda Nussbaum, on Larry King Live/June 16, 2003, URL accessed 18 October 2009.
- ^ Nussbaum, Hedda. Plants Do Amazing Things. New York, NY: Random House, Inc, 1977.
- ^ Raoul Lionel Felder, Barbara Victor. Getting Away With Murder: weapons for the war against domestic violence. Simon and Schuster, p. 266
- ^ Skaine, Rosemary. 2003. Paternity and American law. McFarland, ISBN0786414111, p. 87
- ^ Skaine, p. 87
- ^ Skaine, p. 87
- ^ Weisberg, D. Kelly. 1996. Applications of feminist legal theory to women's lives: sex, violence, work, and reproduction. Temple University Press, ISBN 1566394244, p. 919