The state Legislature passed a bill named for slain 7-year-old abuse victim Nixzmary Brown that would seriously boost jail time for adults who torture or deliberately cause a child to die.
“Nixzmary’s law” would change the maximum sentence to life in prison and remove any possibility that the perpetrator could receive parole.
The state Senate approved it Thursday night. Gov. Paterson hasn’t yet said whether he’d sign.
Nixzmary’s name became synonymous with horrific abuse — and cracks in the child-welfare system — when she died in 2006.
Cesar Rodriguez, the little girl’s stepfather, had flown into a rage at the malnourished youngster after she took a cup of yogurt from the refrigerator without permission. He and her mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, were both sentenced to prison in connection with the girl’s beating death.
Details emerged after her death and during the trial of Rodriguez and Santiago about the conditions in which Nixzmary was forced to live at their Brooklyn home — facing frequent beatings at the hands of her stepfather.
She was sometimes forced to spend all night tied to a chair, and had to use a litter box for a toilet.
Her mom was ultimately convicted of first-degree manslaughter and received more jail time than her husband — getting the maximum of 43 years.
“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 said at the sentencing last year.
Her 29-year-old husband received 26 1/3 to 29 years behind bars for first-degree manslaughter.
The case stunned a city that had already seen child-welfare shakeups prompted by such tragedies as the death of little Lisa Steinberg at the hands of her adopted father, Joel Steinberg, in 1987.
A massive revamp of the Administration for Children’s Services followed Nixzmary’s death, and then-Gov. George Pataki signed into law a string of measures to boost child safety services.
One required local child-welfare agencies to alert police when there is any report of possible abuse.