Posted on 03/03/2005 4:25:53 AM PST by amdgmary
CLEARWATER - The name of Karen Ann Quinlan, whose right-to-die case 30 years ago created legal precedent for end-of-life issues, has surfaced again in the case of Terri Schiavo.
Schiavo's parents want Judge George Greer to throw out his ruling to remove her feeding tube because his order includes an error about the Quinlan case. Her husband's lawyer called the request invalid and dismissed the error as insignificant.
Greer's 2000 order to remove the tube was based on trial testimony from Schiavo's husband and others that she would not want to live on life support.
But a friend of Schiavo's, Diane Meyer, testified about a statement Schiavo made to her concerning Quinlan.
Quinlan's parents persuaded the New Jersey Supreme Court to order their daughter off a ventilator in 1976, though she remained on a feeding tube.
Meyer said she joked about Quinlan to Terri Schiavo in the summer of 1982 after seeing a movie about the case on television. Meyer said the joke was in bad taste and upset Schiavo, then 19.
Meyer said Schiavo told her "she did not approve of what happened. What the parents are doing" to Quinlan, transcripts state.
In his 2000 ruling, Greer notes that Meyer used the present tense in her statements, which he said raised serious questions about when they occurred.
His ruling states that they more likely occurred in the 1970s when Schiavo was a child.
"The court is mystified as to how these present tense verbs would have been used some six years after the death of Karen Ann Quinlin (sic)," he wrote.
Quinlan lived until 1985, three years after Schiavo reportedly made the statement.
David Gibbs III, the attorney for Schiavo's parents, filed a motion Wednesday asking Greer to vacate his 2000 ruling and hold a new trial.
He says Greer discounted Meyer's testimony because he wrongly believed Quinlan was dead in 1982.
Gibbs also asked Greer to toss out his recent order to remove Schiavo's feeding tube March 18.
"Critical evidence was discounted by the court," Gibbs said. "If this was a death penalty case, we would have a new sentencing and we would get a new trial. We believe this is huge."
Terri Schiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 when, at age 26, she had a heart attack and collapsed in her St. Petersburg home.
Schiavo's husband, Michael, has been fighting for seven years to remove her feeding tube.
Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, are fighting to keep her fed.
Though the Schindlers believe she responds to them, Michael Schiavo and most doctors say she is in a vegetative state and has no hope for recovery.
Because Schiavo did not have a living will, Greer had to rely on people's memories of what she said about end of life issues.
His original order has been followed by a long and contentious court battle.
Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, said the Quinlan error in Greer's order is insignificant.
He said the Schindlers' request is invalid because too much time has passed since Greer's 2000 ruling.
"I think what the judge meant to say was that her life support was removed in the mid-1970s," Felos said. "This is so insignificant that the parents chose not to raise the issue in the appellate court."
But Gibbs, who was not the Schindlers' lawyer in 2000, said the error apparently was overlooked.
A lawyer who read the transcripts contacted him by e-mail recently about it. It could all be moot. Greer's 2000 ruling suggests Schiavo's opinion of the Quinlan case didn't weigh heavily in his decision.
The request is one of 16 motions Gibbs has made to keep Schiavo alive.
A status conference on some of those motions is set for Friday.
Greer also will consider a request by the Tampa Tribune and WFLA-Ch. 8 that he release a document in which the state Department of Children and Families seeks to get involved in the case.
Gregg Thomas, an attorney for the newspaper and station, told Greer during a hearing Wednesday that the public has a right to know what prompted the request.
Attorneys have said the agency is has received reports that Terri Schiavo was abused and wants Greer to delay removing the tube for 60 days while it investigates.
"The greater access there is, the more the people can judge the actions of the DCF, judge the actions of the governor and judge your honor's actions," Thomas said.
DCF attorneys opposed making the documents public, citing a need to protect the privacy of witnesses even if they are not named.
Greer said he would rule Thursday.
Before the hearing, DCF Secretary Lucy Hadi was asked whether Gov. Jeb Bush was orchestrating the agency's effort to get involved in the case.
Hadi was speaking Wednesday at the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club in St. Petersburg when former club president Gregory Wilson asked, "Is it possible that the governor is using your agency as a pawn to keep his hand in this tragic event?"
Hadi said no, adding: "I hope you're not suggesting that fulfilling our statutory requirements, investigating abuse and neglect, is being manipulated by someone."
Afterward, Hadi said the DCF investigates only when it receives substantive information.
"It has to be credible, from a standpoint of somebody who is involved and has firsthand knowledge of the circumstances," she said.
Ping.
This judge and her husband want a dead body ~ and as soon as possible.
yup, still grasping at straws.
they never had a compelling legal argument, they lost every legal battle. Then they started to attack Mike because they lost in court.
what a bunch of crazies. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.
Nothing desperate about this motion. The judge can see how he'll be embarrassed. There's already been some demonstrations outside his Calgary Baptist Church.
The whole SCOFLA will end up exposed, and hopefully voted out of "office" for this mad determination to turn one helpless woman, who's never had the chance to show that she might be able to improve, into a corpse, and then ashes.
That Schiavo has already made arrangements to destroy the evidence after the execution is pretty indicative of what's really going on here.
The only reason we had GW in office in 2000 is because of a similar obsession with a little boy named Elian. The left wanted him back under the tender mercies of a dictator, and didn't seem to have any sense about how this was playing out in the media.
Greer the Ghoul.
And don't so quick use the newbie tag...newbie.
I read something once about how to tell if someone is lying. It mentioned the use of tenses. The use of a present tense is a clue someone might be fabricating. This is based on the idea, that a fabrication is a story someone is making up at the time they are telling it, thus the present tense. If someone is accurately relating something that happened to them in the past, they correctly use the past tense. Just food for thought.
Too bad all the money that's going to attorneys couldn't be spent helping Terri...therapy or whatever. This is so sad. In the end, the only 'winners' will be the lawyers who have every reason to keep this going.
BTW--I don't know exactly why my date is what it is, perhaps it's because I changed email addresses, but I've been posting here longer than you.
Michael Schiavo's Lawyers recieved -
approx 500,000 Dollars of Money meant for Terri's therapy
The only reason the money went to those lawyers was due to the so called Husband seeking Terri's death thru the court.
The man could have gone on with his life and allowed her family to care for her. No one would be in court. Lawyers wouldn't be getting richer off this case. There didn't need to be a case. Terri should have been given therapy, instead of a death sentence.
Terri ping! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
You and your friends don't realize that even if Terri dies, this will not be over!
You must be related to him. Nobody calls him Mike. You must be a cousin or an uncle or something.
You mean THE PRO-EUTHANIASTS TERRI SCHIAVO DISINFORMATION PAGE!
I'm not fooled.
You mean Mike the "Do Do Head" who won't sign over guardianship to Terri's folks? Simple little act that could end all this fighting. Whoops, I forgot - there is money he would lose if he did that! What if they let him keep the money? Do you think he would give guardianship to Terri's folks?
Nothing to see here folks. Move along, Ignore the trolls. Feeding them just keeps them alive.
Read the facts - www.terrisfight.org
I guess this should be "ping"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You must enjoy the abuse. :-)
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