Florida Shows How States Can Restrain Rogue Judges Who Let Criminals Go

In August 2021, Florida woman Precious Bland drowned her 15-month-old and stabbed her husband who tried to stop her along with her teen daughter. After she was arrested and put on trial nearly five years later, she pled insanity, claiming that she had a “psychotic break” due to the stresses of Covid. At the time of the drowning she allegedly screamed, “Jesus Christ is coming, and Covid is going to kill us all!” The judge of this case, Miguel de la O, apparently found this argument persuasive and acquitted Bland. 

Typically, the story would end there. Time and again, a psychotic murderer commits a heinous crime, stands before a liberal judge and claims insanity, receives mental health treatment, and is then released back into the public so that they can have more “psychotic breaks” that harm innocent people. 

A recent example of this was DeCarlos Brown Jr., the murderer of the young Ukrainian woman Iryna Zarutska. Instead of putting Brown on death row for repeatedly stabbing an innocent woman on a bus, the judge instead found Brown “incompetent to stand trial.” Leftists have pointed out that Brown has not been released, but kept in federal custody in a mental health facility until he becomes adequately competent to stand trial and receive punishment. Nevertheless, as Chris Sharp writes in City Journal, if Brown cannot recover from his mental illness, he will likely be returned to state custody which “could allow Brown’s case to be dismissed, setting him free.”

Fortunately, someone is pushing back against this gross injustice. Responding to the acquittal of Precious Bland, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is filing articles of impeachment against the judge. In a recent press conference, Uthmeier called out other such rulings from judges who refuse to punish dangerous criminals like Bland, including a man released after attempted murder who later killed three tourists as well as a child sex offender who later murdered his five-year-old stepdaughter. All of these monsters pled insanity and were quietly released by liberal judges refusing to administer the law as written.

Once again demonstrating why he is the best governor in the country, Ron DeSantis immediately endorsed Uthmeier’s actions, calling on the state’s legislature to “do its duty” and vote impeach to these judges. If Florida’s congress follows through removes Judge Miguel de la O from office, this could signal a massive shift in criminal justice, not just in Florida, but across the nation. 

For too long, leftist judges have flouted the law and put criminals back on the streets. Following the principles of Critical Legal Theory, which holds that the “law supports a power dynamic which favors the historically privileged and disadvantages the historically underprivileged,” they actively subvert the legal process in any way they can. This usually translates to accepting bogus claims of mental incompetence, issuing lighter sentences for serious crimes, and seeking out alternatives to incarceration. By doing so, they can do their part to remedy the “disparate impact” of the law on black Americans who proportionally commit crimes in far greater numbers than other those in other racial groups. 

All over the county, even in red states like Florida, these judges have systematically undermined the legal process and made their jurisdictions far less safe. Somehow, it is not enough to arrest these criminals and expect a judge to send them to prison; more often than not, the judge just sends them right back to commit more crimes. And, to make matters worse, there is usually nothing that can be done about any of it. Ostensibly, impeachment of judges is reserved for legal misconduct, not egregiously bad rulings. 

Perhaps sensing the overwhelming frustration of his constituents, Uthmeier is finally blowing through these excuses and holding these judges accountable. If they are indeed applying a different standard on criminals because of their race or because they think that the law is fundamentally unjust, then they themselves are violating the law and must face the appropriate consequences. As it stands, these individuals are singlehandedly making their respective communities less safe and their continued presence is demoralizing the population. 

Americans should not have to tolerate any of this. Decades of decay and the proliferation of hollowed out cities easily prove that more leniency for criminals does not result in a safer, more equitable society. Rather, it has aggravated division between racial groups and social classes, reducing interaction between neighbors and raising collective suspicions to unsustainable levels. So much collective anxiety could be relieved if the actual perpetrators of injustice, both the criminals and the judges that enable them, were removed once and for all. 

Whole towns and cities could finally experience healing, and real community life would become possible. Americans across the county are done with unaccountable rogue judges flouting the law and forsaking their responsibilities. Citizens must be be able trust the justice system again before they can trust one another. Uthmeier and the Florida legislators have a chance to rectify a great evil plaguing American public life and setting an example for other state governments. Americans should take notice and start asking the same of their own state’s leadership.