Schiavo parents plan new US Supreme Court appeal (Supreme Court rejects appeal)

Agence France-Presse ^ | 3/31 GMT | AFP

[Jim W N]

PINELLAS PARK, United States (AFP) - As a brain-damaged woman passed her 12th day without food or drink in a hospice here, Terri Schiavo's parents are planning to again petition the US Supreme Court to intervene, their lawyer said.

As a brain-damaged woman passed her 12th day without food or drink in a hospice here, Terri Schiavo's parents are planning to again petition the US Supreme Court to intervene, their lawyer said. Bob and Mary Schindler have been rebuffed by a series of courts in recent weeks and days, their latest setback came Wednesday after the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected their appeal to reopen the case into whether their daughter's feeding tube should be reinserted.

But the woman's parents appear set to continue waging their legal battle.

"I can confirm for you that we are now preparing to file an appeal with the United States Supreme Court," the Schindler's lawyer, Steve Kluth, said in a statement issued by his office.

However, the Schindlers have already been rebuffed once by the US' highest court in Washington on March 24.

Terri Schaivo's feeding tube was removed March 18, triggering an intense legal battle and a right-to-life political storm that sparked the involvement of the US Congress and US President George W. Bush.

Bush signed legislation backing a federal court review of Terri's case -- she has been in a persistent vegitative state for 15 years -- but the federal courts have so far declined to intervene on her behalf.

[danamco]

If the Bushes do not take immediate actions in this regard, its over. My goodness, of all the domestic issues they can the greatest influence on, this is it!
Time is of the essence.


Thank you for your answer! Jey Seculow can explain the Florida Constitution much better to you than I can!!!

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

I believe these are the worst lawyers I have ever seen.

They are not bad lawyers just because the judges refuse under any circumstance to hear them. Good judges would have found a way to the merits of the case and then made the case to us all. Their dismissiveness is as much an insult to WE THE PEOPLE as it is to the Schindlers.

[El Gran Salseron]

"There are affidavits"

Affidavits are worth dip-doodly-squat if there is one person who will deny the content of the affidavit.

[Gimme]

You have to admire the Schindler Family.

I admire them so much tremendously, they love her unconditionally. Searching every avenue, Beggin for their daughters life, no parent shoudl have to do that, it so basic, instinct, something Greer fails to see. Poor folks, no Mother or Father should have to BEG for the life of their innocent child. No one deserves this treatment. It's so basic. I feel like I am in an alternate reality here - horror.

[sport]

You know of course, that the Schindler's didn't even get into this fight until after they asked for 1/2 of the malpractice suit $ and Mike told them no.

How do you know this?

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Bork is his own worst enemy.

I noticed on Hannity that he always moved the conversation away whenever any influence either Bush could have was brought up. I got the impression that on the court he would have been just another tyrant. The problem is not just the people on the bench. It is structural. That problem can only be fixed by executives using some their power independently rather than just as a functionary of the court.

[kingattax]

terri schindler, who has done no crime, is less important to the federal courts of the United States than criminals and people who are a threat to our country being detained in guantanamo.

every american citizen should be justifiably outraged,but sadly that's not the case.

[Texas Mom]

who are saying it would by 'dangerous' to hydrate Terri now that her body is shutting down.

Oh, My God.. Are they afraid it will kill her?

[danamco]

Shows you what they are made of. Greed.



This is what Terri was up against.

Here’s where most of the Terri Schiavo Insurance money went:

These funds, the result of a malpractice suit, were meant solely to provide for Terri Schiavo’s care and rehabilitation.

---

Atty. Gwyneth Stanley - $10,668.05
Atty. Deborah Bushnell - $65,607.00
Atty. Steve Nilson - $7,404.95
Atty. Pacarek - $1,500.00
Atty. Richard Pearse (GAL) - $4,511.95
Atty. George Felos - $397,249.99
1st Union/South Trust Bank – $55,459.85
Michael Schiavo - $10,929.95
Total: $545,852.34

---

Neglect and abuse complaints is that Michael Schiavo:

* Has not allowed therapy or rehabilitation since late 1992.
* Has prevented swallowing tests or swallowing therapy since 1993.
* Ordered caretakers not to clean Terri's teeth since 1995, resulting in removal of five teeth in April 2004.
* Placed Terri in hospice in 2000, despite the fact she is not terminally ill.
* Refuses to allow Terri to leave her room. She has not been outside since 2000.
* Ordered doctors not to treat Terri when she had a life threatening infection in 1993 and 1995.

---

Virtually as soon as Michael Schiavo received the monies from the medical malpractice claim involving his wife, Terri Schindler-Schiavo,
he withheld all therapy and rehabilitation services from her.

Terri Schiavo had sustained a serious brain injury as the result of a suspicious incident in their home in 1990 and in 1992,
her husband had filed claims against several of her former doctors, claiming her “collapse” was caused by a misdiagnosis.
He received over $1.5 million in 1993 including $750,000 which had been specifically earmarked by the trial jury for Terri’s rehabilitation based on a life expectancy of 50 years.
Mary and Bob Schindler Sr., her parents, consulted a St. Petersburg attorney about removing Michael Schiavo as their daughter’s guardian and discussed the case at length with him.
Unfortunately, the Schindlers did not have the amount of money the attorney demanded as a retainer to take the case.
That attorney became the judge in the case-----a totally prohibited conflict of interest.
Thereafter, the attorney-judge approved the hiring of George Felos as the attorney for Schiavo to be paid from the trust fund and the stage was set for her judicial homicide.
The judge wasn’t George W. Greer.
It was Mark I. Shames.

---

The money was then diverted to the Judicide G reer.


GREER DONOR
AMOUNT
POSITION
ACTION

Lawyers For
Michael Schiavo
Hamden Baskin III

Felos & Felos

Deborah Bushnell

Gyneth S. Stanley

Steven Nilsson

Beth Wilson


$500 & $500
$250
$250
$150 and $250
$250 and $250
$250 and $100
Michael Schiavo’s Lawyer[s]
Greer
denies many or all of Schindler’s in favor of Felos
Greer Allows hearsay as evidence/disallows Schindler’s statements

Felos former chairman of board of directors of Hospice of Florida Suncoast




Daniel Grieco


$300
Employer of Michael Schiavo at time of Feb. 25, 1990 then attorneyOf record for Michael up until the malpractice award,

Incident when injuries occurred to Terri,Reappeared as attorney for selected pleadings

State/County
Employees/Elected
Frank Nagatani
$50 and $50


DCF Attorney
Squashed
testimony for DCF Investigator to appear on behalf of abuse allegations


Bernie McCabe
In-Kind
State Attorney
Allowed underling to appear in campaign ad for Greer
Will not call Grand Jury


Everett Rice
$500 & In-Kind
Sheriff/State Rep
Didn’t conduct criminal investigation into what really happened to Terri or allegations of abuse after initial incident
Allowed Deputy & use of county property to appear in campaign ad for Greer


John Carassas
$100


Deputy Attorney General
Florida Deputy Attorney General, involvement with
Rice in Sept. 2003 motion for Greer recusal dueTo improper discussion of case



James Hellickson


$150 & In Kind
Assistant state attorney in office of Bernie McCabe, Pinellas/Pasco State Attorney

Appeared in Greer Campaign Ad




Paula Shea
In Kind
Assistant Pinellas Public Defender
Appeared in Greer Campaign Ad


Andrew
Sasso


$100
Officer in Guardianship monitoring program and

Guardian ad litem pool
Was supposed to:
“evaluate information about the well-being and property of all persons adjudicated of having a legal incapacity so that the court can fulfill its legal obligation to protect and preserve the interests of the ward,”
FL COURTS

Misc. People w connections
Richard La Belle


$100
Member of Board of Directors of
Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities
Supposedly ACPD
doing investigation into Schiavo case



Battaglia, Ross, Disus and Wein


$250
Principal Kelli Crabb is past chairperson of Hospice Foundation of Florida Suncoast and member of Board of directors




Gus Bilirakis


$40 cash
Former Hospice Board member and of American Hellonic Education Progressive Assoc. (AHEPA)

Felos past Governor


Divito and Higham


$250 and $250
Law firm employed by St. Petersburg/Venice
Dioceses
Terri’s Dioceses

[Tulsa Ramjet]

"I think you have found the future "Mrs. Michael Schiavo"."

or a stealth, felos death groupie 'trying to bring reason' into the discussion.

Hang on a sec, Felos is having another press conference on day 13: "You should see how her extraordinary gums recede from her smiling teeth into her pretty skull and her beautiful eyes appear to pop out of her head. she is at peace. Where is that stuff animal? Oh,..there it is. Wait! Her soul just mind-melted with me. This is what she signed up for. What's that, Michael? There is no written record of her desires? That's okay. We know what she wants. She wouldn't want to live with all those bruises and broken bones anyway."
---Felos

Let her parents take her home.

[skr]

Whose condo did Terri and Michael live in when they first moved to Florida? Who took care of the bills for all those years while the lawsuit was going through? Who wanted to be able to pay for rehabilitation and therapy, since Michael was no longer doing so? Who wants to take care of her now that most of the money is long gone?

And, finally, who has been trying to legally kill Terri soon after the money rolled in? You realize that Michael could've starved and dehydrated her to death at his own home, don't you? Of course, an invalid wife is inconvenient when one wants to bring women home. And starving/dehydrating someone to death is illegal...unless you can get a pro-death lawyer, a judge with interesting connections and a hospice willing to defraud the government involved.

[Spunky]

Someone on another thread was wondering why Scalia wasn't saying anything about the Schiavo Case. Well back in 1990 he made his feeling quite clear.

It was in the Cruzan case where the parents wanted her feeding tube removed and the Missouri State Court said they could remove it. The Missouri Supreme Court said No! the couldn't and they overturned the lowerer court. The United States Supreme Court concurred with the Missouri Supreme Court.

Rhenquist wrote the opinion of the court but here is what Scalia said even though he concured with the ruling.

JUSTICE SCALIA, concurring. The various opinions in this case portray quite clearly the difficult, indeed agonizing, questions that are presented by the constantly increasing power of science to keep the human body alive for longer than any reasonable person would want to inhabit it. The States have begun to grapple with these problems through legislation. I am concerned, from the tenor of today's opinions, that we are poised to confuse that enterprise as successfully as we have confused the enterprise of legislating concerning abortion -- requiring it to be conducted against a background of federal constitutional imperatives that are unknown because they are being newly crafted from Term to Term. That would be a great misfortune. While I agree with the Court's analysis today, and therefore join in its opinion, I would have preferred that we announce, clearly and promptly, that the federal courts have no business in this field; that American law has always accorded the State the power to prevent, by force if necessary, suicide -- including suicide by refusing to take appropriate measures necessary to preserve one's life; that the point at which life becomes "worthless," and the point at which the means necessary to preserve it become "extraordinary" or "inappropriate," are neither set forth in the Constitution nor known to the nine Justices of this Court any better than they are known to nine people picked at random from the Kansas City telephone directory; and hence, that even when it is demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence that a patient no longer wishes certain measures to be taken to preserve his or her life, it is up to the citizens of Missouri to decide, through their elected representatives, whether that wish will be honored. It is quite impossible (because the Constitution says nothing about the matter) that those citizens will decide upon a line less lawful than the one we would choose; and it is unlikely (because we know no more about "life and death" than they do) that they will decide upon a line less reasonable....

It would be a good thing to go read this whole Supreme Court Ruling.

Cruzan Case

[Chickenhawk Warmonger]

I will refer to them as deathmongers from now on... My heart aches for Terri's parents.

[Brad’s Gramma]

That sounds like a statement that a ten year old would make.

Please apologize to my grandson.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Slippery slope.

Think about it.

[Brad’s Gramma]

BTTT

[snowsislander]

I don't know how this will be presented as a federal issue, but it seems plausible to use the 14th Amendment, that she has been denied life without due process.

It is an excellent ground under a system of justice, but while we have a system, it apparently is not a system of justice.

[RasterMaster]

"Let her parents take her home."

That would be the only way for her to die with any 'dignity'.

[Tulsa Ramjet]

"It would be a good thing to go read this whole Supreme Court Ruling."

Yeah, sure, in our spare time. Bottom line scalia said no federal court involvement. How about no state court involvement? Look what happened when they did. And now we have local law enforcement acting on an unlawful order.
"Oh, we just are doing our job, you know, keeping the peace."
Malarkey. Jebya needs to grow some cajones and send the Guard down to free the patient from this incredible comedy of errors. All it takes is a few phone calls to calm the local boys down.

Is it just me, or is Florida a hotbed of major, major emotional issues? A little boy washes up on the shore, send him back to communist cuba. A disabled woman gets the an illegal legal shaft, starrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrve her to death.