Posted on 12/29/2004 7:16:22 AM PST by floriduh voter
Crate of rocks.
USA Today article:
'Death sentence' is unjust
By Daniel Webster
Thursday, January 27, 2005
By any definition, Terri Schiavo is alive. She has now been issued a death sentence by the courts.
"Terri's Law" was enacted in October 2003, when a disabled and brain-damaged woman was being starved to death by judicial order in Florida. Terri Schiavo had collapsed in her apartment from lack of oxygen in 1990 at age 26.
Terri had never executed a written living will. There were questions regarding whether the judges in this case had actually followed Florida law. There were differing statements given in court about her end-of-life wishes. There was conflicting medical testimony as to whether rehabilitation could help Terri. This was the climate in which Terri's Law was enacted by the Legislature and signed by the governor.
Florida citizens were justifiably concerned that an innocent, disabled Florida woman was being put to death by court order under extremely questionable and horrific circumstances. If the proceedings that led up to the execution of serial-killer Ted Bundy had been handled in the same way, Bundy's conviction would have been overturned.
Capital felons on trial for their lives in Florida are entitled to independent counsel, competent representation, trial by jury and automatic review of their death-penalty case by the Florida Supreme Court. Yet Terri, utterly innocent of any wrongdoing, received none of these protections.
Additionally, had Bundy been ordered to die slowly by starvation and dehydration (as Terri likely will), his penalty would assuredly have been reversed by the courts as "cruel and unusual" punishment.
The governor has the ability, in a criminal death sentence, to grant clemency. The Legislature only sought to extend the same protection to Terri Schiavo.
The legislative and executive branches have equally important roles to play in protecting the handicapped. The state's duty is to preserve life, not arbitrarily end it.
Florida State Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, was sponsor of the "Terri's Law" legislation.
No way girl! Love ya!
Love ya too, my friend.
Excuse me but I must bump post #1564--it's important.
Bump #1564
"Jot down these numbers and call, asking for a criminal investigation into the Terri Schiavo case.
Federal Bureau of Investigation 202-324-3000
U.S. Department of Justice
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov 202-514-2000 Main Switchboard
Office of US Attorney General 202-353-1555 "
We go way way way back lady. When we meet in person, it will be a kiss and a hold for you and me.
Thanks for the USA Today article. I guess I should call Daniel Webster and thank him for writing it. I hope our Fla House and Senate is thinking about re-visiting getting ADDED PROTECTIONS FOR THE DISABLED out of committee and back to the floor. At least Jim King isn't Senate President any more.
LOL.
Post #1553 bump!
THE POOR LAMB CRIES
AND THE ACLU REJOICES
By: Daniel Sargis
In The Rape of Lucrece, Shakespeare poignantly notes that when "The wolf hath seized his prey, the poor lamb cries." Those cries of the poor lamb fall on the deaf ears of the liberals over at the ACLU. Even more poignant, the taxpayer supported ACLU, much like the Nazis whose "rights" they support, celebrates the death of "poor lambs" and the life of "wolves". It is a world turned upside-down by the degenerative logic of ACLU liberals...gratis your tax dollars.
Imagine any lawmaker asking a constituency to support taxpayer funding for an organization that: (1) advocates killing innocent brain damaged people; (2) advocates killing innocent unborns; and (3) celebrates the lives of rapists and murderers. That is your 21st century ACLU.
To end the inevitable nitpicking over the status of ACLU taxpayer funding right up front...it is. Despite the ACLU categorically stating that "We do not receive any government funding", they do. As a myriad of non-profit organizations, the ACLU receives taxpayer support in three ways: (1) the organization is a non-profit and does not pay any taxes; (2) the donations to ACLU "foundations" are tax-deductible and reduce the donor’s tax liability; and (3) under certain circumstances, ACLU lawyers are compensated with tax dollars for their time. What's in a name? That which we call taxpayer funding by any other word would smell as sweet.
In the latest round of an ongoing battle, the Supreme Court refused to intercede and keep Terri Schiavo, a severely brain-damaged Florida woman, hooked to a feeding tube. Schiavo can breathe on her own but cannot swallow. Without the aid of a feeding tube, she will slowly starve to death. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, who lives with another women, has been fighting to have the tube removed. Terri Schiavo’s parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, and her siblings, Bobby and Suzanne, want to fight for life with Terri. The ACLU is fighting with Terri’s "husband" to end her life.
As proudly announced on the ACLU website, "The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida today welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear an appeal of Terri's Law...." After joining with Michael Schiavo’s lawyer, the ACLU is perversely happy about helping this "husband" end his wife’s life. No doubt that in another age, the ACLU might have fought for the "right" of "Aktion T 4", the Nazi euthanasia program to eliminate "life unworthy of life".
And speaking of "life unworthy of life", there is the case of Connecticut serial killer Michael Ross. From 1981 to 1984, Ross, a Cornell University graduate, murdered eight young women after raping seven of them. He did not rape 14 year old Leslie Shelley who was locked in a car trunk while Ross raped and then murdered her 14 year old best friend April Brunais. In his confession, Ross said that he thought Shelley was brave so he didn’t rape her before murdering her. Had Viagra been available, Ross might have been able to perform the back-to-back rapes of two 14 year olds.
As an indication of Ross’s depravity, liberal little Connecticut produced juries that sentenced him to death two times: in 1987 and again in 2000. In a typically convoluted mess, Ross wants to be executed; 80% of Connecticut citizens want Ross executed; the families of the victims want Ross executed; and the liberals with the support of the ACLU want to save Ross from execution.
Despite a scheduled execution and Ross’s own stated desires to die, "Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut argued...that serial killer Michael Ross could suffer ‘excruciating pain’ during his execution by lethal injection Jan. 26, and asked a federal judge to stay the execution...." The federal judge who heard these arguments denied the stay and allowed the planned execution to proceed. BUT...two days before the execution, "Chief U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny's dramatic stay...of the execution" threw the outcome into doubt.
A Connecticut Public Defenders’ office gone wild, with the help of the ACLU, was successful in pleading for a stay of Ross’s execution. Ross is represented by private counsel retained by Ross to help him die. The Public Defenders’ office has been found by court rulings to have no standing in the case. They are uninvited busybodies having fun on the taxpayer’s dime. There is no mandate in the state statutes that authorizes this kind of intervention.
The federal judge who granted the stay of execution, also a graduate of Cornell University, agreed "that conditions on death row have contributed to Ross' desire to die." One of the attorneys arguing for the stay said that, ""A government can't say, `We're going to give you the death penalty,' and then put you in conditions that are so unbearable that you don't fight." Tell that to the young women Ross raped and then "...forced them to roll over on their stomachs...straddle them and strangle them from behind."
For the record, Connecticut also has a convicted murderer, Daniel Webb, on death row who sued the state with the help of these same legal gadflies because he wasn’t allowed to use African American beauty products on death row. Denial of Afro Sheen was a more heinous crime than the torture and murder of a young female bank executive.
I will retire to Bedlam. In arguing that no "competent" person would wish their own execution, these pansy do-gooders simply ignore the fact that no "competent" person would rape 14 year old girls and then murder them. On the basis of this logic, let’s have a national holiday for all non-competent people to indulge their psycho-sexual fantasies. You can name it "Democratic President’s Day"...or "Massachusetts Senator’s Day".
It is striking that the liberals from the ACLU will jump on any bandwagon that seeks to destroy the unborn; euthanize the brain-damaged; or protect the lives of heinous murderers. To this list you can also add protecting the "rights" of Islamic terrorists and condemning anything in America’s national interests.
It is a perverted logic and once again, the check is ultimately written by the American taxpayer.
"Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact."
http://www.etherzone.com/2005/sarg012805.shtml
I thought you had to be over 18 years of age to post on Free Republic. HHMMMM...go figure
Terri ping to 1630. If anyone wants to be on/off my Terri ping list, please let me know by Freepmail.
This is GOOD news. I so hope it is a much needed and long anticipated breakthrough!
Well prove me wrong.
Worth reading again...from the 1999 deposition.
Page 48 starting at line 14:
(Questions from opposing counsel. Answers from Michael Schiavo)
Q. Have you considered turning the guardianship over to Mr. and Mrs. Schindler?
A. No, I have not.
Q. And why?
A. I think that’s pretty self-explanatory.
Q. I’d like to hear your answer.
A. Basically I don’t want to do it.
Q. And why don’t you want to do it?
A. Because they put me through pretty much hell the last few years.
Q. And can you describe what you mean by hell?
A. The litigations they put me through.
(page 49 -- line 1)
Q. Any other specifics besides the litigation?
A. Just their attitude towards me because of the litigations. There is no other reason. I’m Terri’s husband and I will remain guardian.
(The subject changes at this point and the topic doesn’t come back up until cross…where Michael is questioned by his own attorney, George Felos.)
(Page 51 - line 13)
Q. You were also asked a question about resigning as guardian or would you consider doing that. Upon reflection, is there anything that you want to add in response to that question?
A. Yeah. Another reason would be that her parents wouldn’t carry out her wishes.
-----
Funny how Michael couldn’t remember that *important* reason until he was "prompted" during cross examination.
-----
(once again, in case anyone missed it)
Q. Why don't want to turn guardianship over to the Schindlers?
Michael-- Basically I don’t want to
Q. Any other reason?
Michael-- Just their attitude towards me because of the litigations. There is no other reason.
Did he die of dehydration, starvation, or something else?
Thanks very much for the ping, Ohioan from Florida.
I wish he'd then been asked "Do you consider yourself bound by oath to forsake all other women for as long as you and Terri both shall live?"
If he answers "yes", then I think he could be pretty safely branded a liar. If he answer "no", then he should be asked "So does that mean you no longer consider yourself married to Terri"?
Not sure what he could respond there.
My father died, too. But not from starvation or dehydration. We wouldn't allow it. Dad asked for water. He said, "Parched." That was all he had energy for.
The difference for most of us, and probably for you, too, is that most people don't go around depriving their loved ones of a chance to recover from their illness or injury. Michael has prevented Terri from getting the therapy she needs and deserves. She used to swallow and eat food after her collapse, but then Michael insisted that they stop feeding her by mouth anything. If you don't exercise a part of your body, it becomes easier for it to atrophy. Michael has neglected Terri, and that's against the law in most states, including Florida.
You can stop the cursing now. We all understand that you aren't enamored with us.
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