One week ago today, Brenda and Robert Matthey heard their fate. They merited much more jail time than they got, but it was the best that the our legal system could devise. Now it is time to think about the legacy of the Russian child that they did not care for.

Brenda and Robert Matthey are a couple from southern New Jersey who adopted three boys from Russia in December 1999. Less than one year later, the oldest of the three boys, Viktor, was dead. He had been starved and beaten by his adoptive parents, and locked in a basement room. Brenda and Robert Matthey were convicted of child abuse in 2004, but the jury deadlocked on the more serious charge of manslaughter. Finally, in April, facing a new trial on that count, the Mattheys pled guilty to second-degree reckless manslaughter. Their new sentence will run concurrently with their previous sentence for child abuse, so they will be eligible for parole in December of this year. I hope the hearing board says No.

I didn't know Viktor Matthey. But when the case first came to trial in 2004, I spent several hours helping one of the reporters covering the case to understand the Russian adoption system and the home study process in the United States. And I have spent many hours since thinking about all the ways to fix the system that should have helped Viktor find a loving forever family.

That is why I have given my full support to Russia's new accreditation system, which is designed to vet the competency of the agencies involved in Russian adoptions. It is why I'm pleased to see adoption agencies in New Jersey and the rest of the United States stepping up to get their own accreditation under the Intercountry Adoption Act. It is why I try to write about the happy, healthy lives that most of the children adopted from Russia now enjoy in the U.S. And why I highlight the philanthropic groups aiding the children who remain in Russia's orphanages.

One of those orphanages is in Svobodniy, the town in Siberia where Viktor Matthey was living before coming to America. According to a poster on the Russian Adoption Forum thread about Viktor, no children from Svobodniy have been adopted since he was killed. Viktor's adoptive grandmother, Phyllis Matthey-Johnson, has resolved to help those children get a new playground. She doesn't need much; $50,000 would do it. There is a PayPal donation link on the Web site set up in Victor's memory, Victor's Promise.

The playground, the philanthropy, the adoption safeguards: These should be Viktor's legacy. But I wish he were here to see them.

Image Credit: Victor's Promise