by John A. Barnes

About the author: John A. Barnes is an editorial writer for the New York Post.

On the night of February 23, 1997, Dallas paramedics were summoned to the apartment that Dionne Pickens shared with her son, 2-year-old Devonta, her daughter, 8-year-old Deandrea, and her boyfriend of two months, 25-year-old Abdullah Youself Blackmon. Little Devonta Pickens was unconscious. Blackmon claimed the boy had fallen into a wooden bed railing.

A quick examination showed that couldn’t possibly be true. The boy’s 30pound body was covered with welts, including no fewer than five sites of blunt- force trauma to the head. Medical examiners said later the injuries were comparable to what a person would receive in a severe car wreck. Devonta never regained consciousness and soon died.

At his trial, Blackmon admitted hitting...