Baby Richard Trial: 1991-95 - Illinois Legislature Gets Involved
The Illinois Supreme Court's decision's unpopularity led to an immediate convening of an emergency session of the state legislature, which at once passed a retroactive law requiring a custody hearing in the case. This led Kirchner to seek a writ of habeas corpus from the Illinois Supreme Court to gain custody of the child, and the Illinois court promptly granted Kirchner's request. At the same time the court took the legislature to task for trying to reverse, by statute, the court's earlier decision.
The Illinois Supreme Court's second ruling in favor of Kirchner, however, was not unanimous. Breaking away from her peers on the court, Justice Ann G. McMorrow, who had sided with the majority in the first decision, now dissented, denouncing the judicial system that had let the case drag on for four years. She was to be only one of many critics of Baby Richard's court-decreed fate. It was popularly believed that the system had failed Richard; but the court was not alone in the blam—Kirchner, Daniella, the Warburtons and their attorney who had known of Kirchner's existence, social workers, the press—everyone seemed to have played a part in the unpopular ruling.
On April 30, 1995, amid a media circus, Kirchner and Daniella arrived at the Warburtons' house and took Richard home with them. Richard cried pitifully and begged the Warburtons not to make him leave. Kirchner and Daniella later married, but in January 1997 Kirchner moved out, leaving Daniella and Richard—now known as Danny Kirchner—for another woman.
Otakar Kirchner (left) carries his son known as 'Baby Richard,' as the boy's foster family grieves.
The Baby Richard case epitomized the American legal system at its worst. It was a sorry story of long judicial delay that made the ultimate decision ever harder on Richard; an unpopular decision that called the legal system's legitimacy into question; and an episode that pitted the judiciary against the political branches of government. Most important, it revealed that traditional American notions of stable families consisting of two married parents raising their own biological children was a simplistic view of modern family life.
—Buckner F. Melton, Jr.
Suggestions for Further Reading
Zito, Anthony S. "Baby Richard and Beyond: The Future for Adopted Children." Northern Illinois University Law Review (Summer 1998): 445-79.
User Comments Add a comment…
2 months ago
karen » kzsing ((at)) webtv dot net
Any word on how Danny is doing now. I heard a few months ago he was planning to attend college. I wish him the best in the future.
9 months ago
Janet » janetp45 ((at)) msn dot com
The boy (now Danny) reported as a teenager that he was very happy to be given back to his natural parents and was glad he lives with his real mother and full sisters. that the adopted parents had scared him before the transfer day only telling him that the people coming to get him were very mean and he was fearful of them when they came in front of all the cameras! Danny said the adopted family had never even told him that he was adopted and these were his real blood parents coming to get him! until he was with his natural parents that first night and they showed him a album of his mom pregant with him and pointed out how much they looked alike he was lead to belive these were mean strangers! Danny was allowed to call his adopted brother and parents when he wanted and did the first few days but Danny said he was very happy being with his natural parents once he understood that he was their real blood son and not the adopted familys son. Danny as a teenager stated that he never wished to see the adopted family again and he felt angry they kept him away from his blood family all those years and has says he has negative recalls of events that happened to him in the adopted familys home and he would never contact them!