"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Friday, August 15, 2008

So what do you do when you ignore your 14-year-old child with cerebral palsy until she dies of starvation with a death weight of 42 lbs?  Well, obviously, you sue everybody in sight:

Just one day after they were charged in the starvation death of their 14-year-old daughter, the parents of Danieal Kelly sued the city for failing to step in and save her.
Yesterday, amid criticism that they were seeking to profit from their child’s death, Andrea and Daniel Kelly were dropped from the suit. Their lawyers, Eric Zajac and Brian R. Mildenberg, said the Kellys agreed to be removed as administrators of the estate and to have a trustee appointed instead.

In a statement, the lawyers said that if the parents were convicted of a crime, any money recovered in the lawsuit would go to Danieal Kelly’s siblings, “most of whom are impoverished children in foster care.”

Danieal Kelly, who suffered from cerebral palsy, wasted away in a squalid West Philadelphia rowhouse while under her mother’s care and the supervision of the city’s Department of Human Services. She starved to death on a fetid mattress in a stifling room, her body covered with gaping bedsores.

Andrea Kelly was charged with murder on July 31. Daniel Kelly, who authorities say abandoned his daughter despite knowledge of her mother’s neglect, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

Several caseworkers, who authorities say visited rarely and missed clear signs that the child was in danger, also face criminal charges for their part in a case that a grand jury said amounted to “total meltdown.”

Despite the criminal charges, the Kellys sued the city on behalf of their daughter’s estate on Aug. 1.

It’s at times like this that my neutral position on the death penalty lurches to the right.  Clearly, the social services failed.  But social services are not supposed to substitute for basic humanity.