The Nation - News from Jan. 20, 1989

Attorneys for accused child killer Joel Steinberg concluded their case by blaming his lover for the death of the child they raised, claiming Hedda Nussbaum killed the little girl in a jealous rage. Steinberg’s lawyers steered clear of a possible last-minute insanity defense--despite indications they might use one--and instead revealed to the jury for the first time in the 12-week murder trial what their client maintains happened the night Lisa Steinberg, the 6-year-old girl he and Nussbaum raised but never adopted, was battered into a fatal coma. “Hedda caused the injury to Lisa. She did it herself in a fight,” attorney Ira London said during the five-hour defense summation in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.