New York Senate passes 'Nixzmary's law'

NEW YORK, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Adults who deliberately kill a child would serve life in prison without possibility of parole under a bill OK'd by the New York Legislature, lawmakers said.

Gov. David Paterson hasn't said whether he will sign the bill, approved by the state Senate Thursday night. The bill was named "Nixzmary's law" after 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown, who was beaten to death in 2006 by her stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, the New York Post reported Saturday.

Rodriguez, 29, was sentenced to 26 1/3 to 29 years for first-degree manslaughter. Nixzaliz Santiago, his wife and the girl's mother, was sentenced to 43 years for first-degree manslaughter.

"You may not have delivered the fatal blow, but were it not for your failure to act, Nixzmary Brown would probably not have died from that blow," Judge Patricia DiMango told Nixzaliz Santiago at the sentencing in 2008.

The girl sometimes was tied all night to a chair and used a litter box for a toilet, prosecutors said at the trial.