The judge, however, accepted her excuse that she was suffer-ing from “post-partum depression” at the time of the killing, and let her off amazingly lightly (by contrast, when Pixley was found guilty of credit card fraud later that same year, she actually had to serve time in prison). She gave birth to Cornilous, her fourth child, in 1996, while still on probation. Because she could not keep him at the halfway house, Blankman offered to take him into her home at her own expense. Note this was a private offer: Social services did not see any pressing need to remove this new baby from his mother.

That’s the wisdom a Maryland appellate court upheld. The judge ordered Blankman to return the boy to Pixley, despite the fact that Blankman wanted to keep caring for Cornilous and that...