Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed new crime accountability laws on Tuesday and issued a direct challenge to the Florida House of Representatives: impeach the judge whose decision to release a convicted sex offender on bond allegedly set the stage for the murder of a five-year-old girl.
The judge in question is Leon County Judge Tiffany Baker-Carper, who allowed Daniel Spencer to remain free after his conviction in an underage sex sting case. Spencer was later charged, along with Chloe Spencer, in the 2025 killing of his stepdaughter, Missy Mogle. The state is seeking the death penalty for both.
The law DeSantis signed, known as Missy's Law, exists because a judge decided that a convicted sex offender belonged on the streets instead of behind bars. A child is dead. And the governor wants consequences that extend beyond new statutes.
Baker-Carper released Spencer on bond before sentencing. That is the fact at the center of this story, and no amount of procedural abstraction changes what followed. A man convicted in an underage sex sting walked free, returned to his household, and now faces capital murder charges in the death of a five-year-old girl who should have been under his protection.
DeSantis did not mince words at the news conference, according to Fox News:
"This should be such an easy call to make sure that this guy was put behind bars, and this judge refused to do it, knowing the risks. And the result has obviously been a tragedy."
He called the situation "an outrage" and "a miscarriage of justice, a dereliction of judicial duty." Then he turned to the remedy.
DeSantis pointed out that the Florida Legislature holds more than the two-thirds majority needed to impeach a judge, and he made clear he expects them to use it.
"To my friends in the Florida House of Representatives, I don't think what you've done is enough. You have the power, and you have sufficient numbers in your chamber, to impeach this judge, Tiffany Baker-Carper."
This is not a symbolic gesture. The governor is telling legislators that passing laws alone will not solve the problem if the judges who apply them continue exercising discretion in favor of dangerous criminals. New statutes are necessary. They are not sufficient.
"Until you start holding these judges accountable, they are going to continue to find ways to benefit the criminal element."
DeSantis added that he believes some Democrats would support impeachment given the facts of the case. Whether that prediction holds remains to be seen, but the underlying logic is sound: this is not a close call on the merits.
The law closes the gap that Baker-Carper exploited. Under Missy's Law:
In short, the law removes judicial discretion in exactly the scenario that killed Missy Mogle. DeSantis signed House Bill 1159 alongside it as part of a broader package of crime accountability measures.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier framed the law's origin plainly:
"Last year, we proposed Missy's Law after the tragic murder of 5-year-old Missy Mogle at the hands of a convicted, abusive pedophile who was allowed to remain out on bond by Judge Tiffany Baker."
Uthmeier noted that the law "removes judicial discretion and ensures dangerous criminals are locked up after conviction."
DeSantis himself offered the sharpest summary of why the law matters:
"If we had this bill in place then, Missy would be alive today."
Baker-Carper won her judicial seat on Nov. 3, 2020, becoming the youngest woman and youngest Black candidate elected judge in Florida's 2nd Judicial Circuit. That biographical detail circulated widely at the time as a milestone. It means nothing to Missy Mogle's family.
The pattern DeSantis identified extends well beyond one judge in Leon County. Across the country, the criminal justice reform movement has produced a class of judges and prosecutors who treat leniency as a virtue in itself, divorced from the specific danger a defendant poses. Convicted sex offenders are not low-level drug possession cases. They are not teenagers caught shoplifting. The distinction matters, and the refusal to make it has real victims.
The progressive theory of criminal justice holds that the system is too punitive, that incarceration should be a last resort, and that judges need more discretion to tailor outcomes to individual circumstances. The Missy Mogle case is what that discretion looks like when it collides with a predator. A judge had the facts. A judge had a conviction. A judge chose leniency. A child died.
This is why conservatives have argued for years that removing discretion in cases involving violent and sexual offenders is not harshness. It is baseline competence. You do not need to be a tough-on-crime firebrand to believe that a man convicted in an underage sex sting should not be walking free before sentencing. You need only possess common sense and a minimal regard for the safety of children.
Laws change the rules going forward. Impeachment addresses the failure that already happened. DeSantis is pursuing both, and the distinction matters.
Missy's Law ensures that future judges cannot replicate Baker-Carper's decision. But the impeachment call sends a message that the judiciary is not a consequence-free zone. Judges who exercise discretion recklessly, who prioritize leniency ideology over public safety, should face removal. Not reassignment. Not a stern letter. Removal.
"Some of these judges are going to find other ways to benefit the criminal element unless they know there's going to be a really significant check and balance that's going to be administered to them."
The Florida House now has a choice. The governor has given them the political framework and public justification. The facts of the case are not ambiguous. The legal authority exists. What remains is the will to act.
A five-year-old girl is dead because a judge decided a convicted sex offender deserved freedom before his sentence was imposed. The law that should have prevented it now exists. The question is whether the people who let it happen will ever be held to account.
Missy Mogle cannot answer that question. The Florida House can.
