Terrell Peterson needed a friend. Somebody to rescue him from the neglect of a crackhead mother, of an allegedly sadistic grandma. Somebody to rescue him from being tied to a banister, from grits for lunch and grits for supper. Somebody to rescue him from the beatings, the scars, the pain, the humiliation, the dehumanization.

Somebody like me or you. A cop, a judge. A system of caretakers to pick up where a family system or the official state system broke down.

It was not to be. Neighbors reported the child abused, but to no avail. Grandma was charged with abuse but the case was dismissed because a state caseworker failed to show up in court to speak on behalf of the boy.

So Terrell left this life early, 5 years old, 29 pounds, so emaciated and battered that nobody knows exactly how he died. Let's hope that a higher being now cares for Terrell, because his family didn't, and his extended family, his human family, didn't.

So now, we've got a murder case against grandma, Pharina Peterson, and Terrell's aunt, Teri Lynn Peterson. A cop enters Peterson's apartment, finds a dark leather belt, a cut phone cord and pantyhose allegedly used to tether and beat the child, as well as a note saying what the boy was to eat: oatmeal and grits.

Again, we fail this child. A judge has ruled the evidence was seized illegally, absent a warrant, rendering it inadmissible in the death-penalty trial of his grandmother and aunt.

So the folks charged with tormenting this child --- with tying him, beating him, starving him and killing him --- could walk. Not because we are callous and uncaring or capable of making a tragic series of mistakes. But because we don't have sense enough to distinguish between the rogue and the good-faith intents of peace officers.

Atlanta Police Detective R.B. Griffie did not enter the apartment to step on the rights of the defendants, but to inquire about two other minor children still there. According to prosecutors, he ascended a flight of stairs to ask if there was an adult to care for the children, when he encountered the evidence. Also, the very next day, police secured a lawful warrant to search the residence.

Defense attorney Bruce Harvey, representing defendant Teri Lynn Peterson, is pleased the evidence was squelched. "If anybody out there thinks the Constitution is a technicality," he says of the Fourth Amendment stricture against unreasonable searches and seizures, "they should be living in another country without it."

Harvey has done a superlative job protecting his client's rights. Who, posthumously, will protect Terrell's?

Jeff Dickerson is a member of the Journal editorial board. His column appears occasionally.

E-mail: jdickerson@ajc.com