A Miami mother who drowned her 15-month-old daughter in a bathtub and stabbed her husband and teenage daughter walked out of court a free woman this week after a judge accepted the novel claim that COVID-19 made her do it. If pandemic panic is now a get-out-of-prison card, no American family is safe from the next person who decides the virus absolves them of consequences.

Precious Bland, 43, admitted to killing her baby Emii on August 23, 2021. That night, she told her family "Jesus Christ is coming and COVID is going to kill us all" and insisted everyone needed to be baptized in the bathtub, according to the arrest report. She held her toddler underwater until the child was unresponsive. When her husband Evan tried to stop her, she had her teenage daughter fetch a knife, then stabbed Evan in the head and neck and sliced the teen's forearm as she tried to save the baby. The father and children escaped. Emii was found face-down in bloody water. Bland then stabbed herself.

Charges: second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, and aggravated child abuse. Bland waived her right to a jury and opted for a bench trial before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Miguel de la O. Her defense attorney, Larry Handfield, argued she suffered a psychotic break triggered by COVID-19 — experiencing "command hallucinations" telling her to baptize infected relatives. The judge bought it, finding her not guilty by reason of insanity on all counts. Handfield told NBC Miami he believes this is America's first successful COVID-related insanity defense.

Bland is not in custody. She was allowed to stay home while awaiting a hearing to determine if she needs further mental health treatment. Outside court, she told reporters: "God is good. This doesn't bring back my daughter. I'm thankful. I love my children."

The New York Post framed the acquittal as "stunning." The Daily Caller reported the facts straight and noted the court declined to comment. HotAir connected the case to a broader pattern: a New York City youth who set a sleeping homeless man on fire in a subway car also cited COVID disruption as a mitigating factor at sentencing — and received only six months above the minimum for a crime that left his victim permanently disfigured.

That's the trajectory. COVID started as a public health emergency. Then it became an excuse for government overreach. Now it's a legal shield for individuals who commit the most horrific acts imaginable. A baby is dead. A husband has stab wounds to the head. A teenage daughter will carry the memory of her mother slicing her arm as she tried to save her baby sister. And the woman who did all of it is home, free, proclaiming God's goodness.

The question isn't whether Precious Bland was mentally disturbed that night. The question is whether a nation that keeps expanding the category of "not responsible" can survive as a nation of laws at all.