Posted on 01/20/2008 9:22:21 PM PST by Tom87
. . . Whether Cesar Rodriguez, who is accused of beatings and abusive behavior that killed his 7-year-old stepdaughter, could not have known he had crossed a line is a matter for a jury to decide. He has admitted that he routinely beat Nixzmary with a belt, hit her with his hands using “all my force,” threw her on the floor. He has admitted duct-taping her emaciated 37-pound frame to a chair and binding her with bungee cords.
But at least in a broad legal sense, Mr. Schwartz has a point. The laws in New York State, as in the rest of the country, are vague on corporal punishment.
. . . In one case, inflicting cuts and bruises on a child was deemed “excessive corporal punishment,” amounting to neglect, the most basic and frequently charged form of child mistreatment. But in another case, shaking a child and causing her to hit her head on the pavement was ruled allowable. . .
In a case where a father was charged with abuse, a more severe infraction than neglect, judges held that biting a girl on the face and arm, leaving severe bruises, did not cross the line . . .
Criminal prosecutions for corporal punishment are rare, several experts said, largely because the law grants parents a wide exception to the assault statutes. . .
The thrust of his defense is that Mr. Rodriguez gave Nixzmary the same kind of discipline that Mr. Rodriguez’s father had given him, including hitting him a lot and holding his head under cold water. . .
“It was done to him, and it didn’t kill him,” Mr. Schwartz said outside the courtroom on Thursday. “How was he to know that it was something that would cause death?” . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Somehow, I think using “all my force” violates even the vaguest of vague standards.
I do not call a swift swat on the bottom as abuse.
But what he did goes far, far beyond that. Not vague to me.
The law, of course, does not limit physical punishment to a swift swat. The question is how far beyond that is allowed.
As for using “all my force,” that per se does not meet the definition of abuse. Excessive does not equal criminal.
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