Child Death Leads to Examination of Custody Rules

New York, NY —

The beating death of 3 year old Kyle Smith has lead to an examination of how adults are vetted in custody cases. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez explains.

REPORTER: Kyle Smith died last Friday. His godmother, Nymeen Cheatham and her boyfriend are accused of killing him. It was Kyle's biological parents who chose Cheatham to take care of their son after deciding they could not.

NYU Law Professor Martin Guggenheim says in custody cases, there is a strong presumption in the law that the decision a parent makes for a child is appropriate.

GUGGENHEIM: It is very different when the state is picking the family...that's foster care and then we want to be sure that they're picking -because they are picking strangers- that they are picking well.

REPORTER: Foster parents are given criminal background checks and they are fingerprinted. The child's biological mother told Channel 7 News she did not know Cheatham was accused of harming her own kids in Texas and gave up custody of them. For wnyc, I'm Cindy Rodriguez