Prince Rams, homicide victim, unsupervised visitationThe Washington Post editorialized this week about the dangers inherent in judicial custody and visitation decisions. Lessons can be learned from the tragic death of Prince Rams.

Prince Rams was a 15-month-old boy who was killed by his father on his 4th unsupervised visit. Prince’s mother had begged a Montgomery County Circuit judge for supervised visits, but was denied.

Judges in Montgomery County do not always ask enough questions of domestic violence petitioners to fully ascertain the risks of unsupervised visitation arrangements. For example, few judges ask “Where was the child when the [domestic violence] incident occurred? Such information is important tounderstand the abusive parent’s level of caution and care around his or her children.