Word: nussbaumer
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...Though her short, unhappy life of six years was spent in a middle-class Manhattan household, it was in circumstances of stunning callousness and squalor. Joel Steinberg, 47, the disbarred attorney who illegally adopted her, spent days at a time in a cocaine stupor. His live-in companion Hedda Nussbaum, 46, was a former children's book editor with a boxer's dented profile, the result of years of beatings by Steinberg. And while only Steinberg stood trial for Lisa's death, a shadow of complicity fell upon everyone who did not act to prevent it: Nussbaum, the girl...
...deliberation with plans for a reunion, they reached their compromise verdict only after some heated quarrels. Most of them entered the jury room believing Steinberg was guilty. Some wanted to convict him on the more serious charge of second-degree murder. But four holdouts were convinced that it was Nussbaum who caused the brain injuries that killed Lisa, a claim raised by Steinberg's attorneys late in the 13-week trial, after several earlier defense strategies fizzled...
...holdouts were swayed by the testimony of medical experts who said that Nussbaum, dazed, malnourished and horribly battered at the time of her arrest, was incapable of the ferocious assault. Said juror Helena Barthell: "She could not have picked up a 43-lb. child and propelled her into a wall...
After he left the apartment, Nussbaum tried several times to waken Lisa, but abandoned the effort because she thought Steinberg could use supernatural healing powers to revive Lisa when he returned. Instead, says Nussbaum, he insisted the couple share some free-base cocaine before calling for help. Nussbaum testified that Steinberg admitted, "I knocked her down, and she didn't want to get up again." Nussbaum suggested a motive for the brutal beating: Steinberg believed Lisa and the couple's other illegally adopted child, Mitchell, then 16 months old, were hypnotizing him with their stares...
...order to testify, Nussbaum, 46, was forced to come to terms with the horror of her ordeal. Originally police charged her, along with Steinberg, with second-degree murder. Prosecutors dropped the charge after becoming convinced she had been so battered psychologically and physically that she could not have participated in beating Lisa. After months of intensive psychiatric care, Nussbaum agreed to testify for the prosecution. On the eve of her testimony, Nussbaum made what her psychiatrist calls a "final declaration of independence" by slapping Steinberg with a $3 million lawsuit for the decade of abuse she allegedly suffered...