Child Custody Despite Murder Spotlights Birth Parents’ Rights

A Maryland judge’s recent decision to grant a woman custody of her toddler even though she murdered another child has cast a spotlight on the key question under debate in child-protection circles: Just how paramount should birth parents’ rights be?

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Michael D. Mason’s strict interpretation of a state law protecting the rights of biological parents assured Latrena Pixley, 23, custody of her 2-year-old son, Cornelius.

In 1993, Pixley was convicted of smothering her 6-week-old daughter with a blanket and dumping the body in a trash bin. But she served minimal jail time because the judge in that case ruled she had been suffering from postpartum depression.

Laura Blankman, 27, a police trainee, had hoped to adopt Cornelius, whom she has been caring for since Pixley was convicted of credit-card fraud and jailed in 1996. Pixley is now free and lives in a halfway house in Washington.

Child-welfare specialists have decried Mason’s ruling, saying it reflects the danger posed when birth parents are favored in custody trials regardless of where their children could be safest, healthiest and happiest.

“What we know over and over again from the literature is that once parents cross that line and abuse one child . . . the other children are at risk,” said Jorja Prover, a professor at UCLA’s school of public policy and social research.

In Maryland, a judge may only terminate a birth parent’s rights if it is determined that the parent did not maintain meaningful contact with the child, failed to contribute to his or her care or was convicted of abusing that child. Murdering a child’s sibling technically does not bar the parent from custody.

Race also was an issue in Mason’s decision. Pixley is black, Blankman is white, and the judge ruled Cornelius would be better off in an African American home.

Still, the main factor in the case was the law favoring the rights of biological parents.

A prime reason the rights of birth parents are usually deemed primary is the belief that mother and child become emotionally attached at birth, Prover said. But the professor added that child-development studies have shown the process of attachment takes 1 1/2 years and is most critical during the child’s 6- to 18-month period.

Cornelius, who just turned 2, has been in Blankman’s care since he was 3 1/2 months old.

Prover argued that “the real question is not are [foster parents and children] attached; the real question is should we preserve this attachment, or should we break this attachment in hopes of getting a better attachment with the birth mother? In [Cornelius’] case, I would say absolutely not. In this case, it is not worth the risk.”

Neither Pixley nor her lawyer could be reached for comment.

The increasing push by child-welfare specialists to favor the interests of children over the rights of biological parents spurred passage last fall of the Adoption and Safe Families Act, which grants states more leeway in terminating parental rights to quicken adoption proceedings and shorten the time children spend in foster homes. Under the new bill, a birth parent’s rights may be denied if the parent has murdered another child.

States have the option of accepting the federal guidelines, and the Maryland Legislature is considering whether to do that.

In Cornelius’ case, however, the bill would not have applied because his care was arranged privately when Blankman worked as an intern at the Montgomery County public defender’s office, where she met Pixley.

Blankman is appealing the custody ruling. Cornelius is scheduled to return to his birth mother on April 18.

Mason recently denied a stay requested by Blankman’s lawyer, Nancy Poster, which would have suspended the boy’s return until a decision was made by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.

But even if the appeal is lost, Poster hopes the publicity the case has received will influence debate.

“That certainly wasn’t our purpose,” Poster said. “But if all we can get out of it is to save the next child, at least we will have accomplished something.”