A Miami judge just let a woman walk out of court after she drowned her 15-month-old daughter in a bathtub.
The woman blamed COVID.
The judge agreed – and now Florida's Attorney General wants him off the bench for good.
A Baby Is Dead and the Killer Is Home
The facts of this case are not complicated.
On August 23, 2021, Precious Bland drowned her infant daughter Emii in a bathtub filled with bloody water.
She also stabbed her husband and her teenage daughter – the older girl had been trying to rip the baby away from her.
When police arrived, they found the 15-month-old face down and unresponsive.
Bland's defense? COVID made her do it.
Her attorney Larry Handfield argued she had suffered a psychotic break caused by COVID-19 and believed she was "baptizing" her family members.
https://twitter.com/ACTBrigitte/status/2070197979726717261?s=20
She was yelling that "Jesus Christ is coming and COVID is going to kill us all" during the attack, according to the arrest report.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Miguel de la O bought it.
He acquitted Bland on all three counts: aggravated manslaughter and two counts of attempted murder in the first degree.
She walked out of court and went home.
Her attorney called it "a glorious day."
Florida's AG Is Done Playing Nice
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier called the ruling exactly what it is.
"In a bench trial – where the judge made the decision, not a jury – he allowed a woman off on an insanity defense after she drowned her baby," Uthmeier told Fox News Digital. "He cited insanity related to COVID. This is unacceptable."
Uthmeier is now pushing for Judge de la O's impeachment – and he's not stopping there.
He's already building a broader campaign to hold Florida's rogue judges accountable, including two other cases that should make your blood boil.
"We have taken a big interest in judges that we believe are exceeding their authority, abusing discretion, or acting in a way that jeopardizes public safety," Uthmeier said.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2070135808208548150?s=20
He then named them: a Tallahassee judge who freed a convicted child sex offender who went on to murder his 5-year-old stepdaughter, and a Miami judge who released a defendant on bail after he shoved rocks into a girl's mouth while assaulting her.
Florida legislators are already calling his office, eager to file articles of impeachment.
Under the Florida Constitution, the House can impeach a judge with a two-thirds vote – and Republicans hold an 85-34 supermajority.
They have the numbers.
They just need the will.
This Is the First of Its Kind and That Is the Whole Problem
Handfield bragged that his COVID insanity defense was the first successful one in the country.
He's right – and that's exactly why everyone should be terrified.
Think about what just happened.
A judge in Miami decided that blaming a pandemic – a pandemic Democrats used to shut down churches, destroy businesses, and strip Americans of basic freedoms for two years – can now get a woman off the hook for drowning her baby.
The insanity defense has historically been used in fewer than one percent of felony cases – and even then, it only succeeds about a quarter of the time.
Courts have traditionally required that defendants couldn't understand the nature of their actions or know right from wrong.
Bland's own prosecutors pointed out that she was "verbalizing that the baby needed to stop breathing" – meaning she knew exactly what she was doing.
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/2072402173124579811?s=20
None of that mattered to de la O.
He found "zero credible explanation other than her psychotic state" and sent her home.
Now every defense attorney in America just took notes.
COVID didn't just close your kids' schools and wreck the economy.
It may have just become the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card for anyone who wants to kill their family and blame a virus.
Uthmeier Is Right and He Needs to Pull the Trigger
The Florida Constitution exists for moments exactly like this one.
"I believe we have impeachment provisions in our state constitutions for a reason," Uthmeier said. "Until we do it – until we reject their abuse of authority – they're going to continue to have credibility when they do these wayward things."
He's correct on the legal framework.
Florida's constitution makes circuit court judges – like de la O – explicitly subject to impeachment for misdemeanor in office.
Sending a woman who drowned her baby back to the home where it happened is a textbook case of abusing that discretion.
And DeSantis proved this works.
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/2072457929777627489?s=20
When a Tallahassee judge released a convicted killer pending sentencing and that man murdered again, DeSantis signed Missy's Law and publicly called for the judge's impeachment.
The threat of accountability changes behavior on the bench.
Judges who know they can free baby killers without consequence will keep doing it.
The only question is whether Florida Republicans will use the supermajority they already have – or give de la O the same free pass he gave Precious Bland.
A 15-month-old girl named Emii is dead.
Her killer is home.
The judge who made that call is still on the bench.
That's what accountability looks like when nobody pushes back.
Sources:
- Robert McGreevy, "Florida AG seeks judge's impeachment after baby drowning COVID insanity acquittal," Fox News, July 2, 2026.
- "South Florida mother acquitted for 2021 death of toddler speaks out as AG calls for impeachment of judge in her trial," CBS Miami, June 2026.
- "South Florida mother accused of drowning toddler found not guilty 'by reason of insanity,'" CBS Miami, June 2026.
- "DeSantis signs 'Missy's Law,' calls for House impeachment of judge," WUSF, April 1, 2026.
- Florida Constitution, Art. III, § 17, Impeachment, Florida Senate.
