Posted on 07/07/2005 5:22:33 PM PDT by KDD
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - There is no evidence that Terri Schiavo's collapse 15 years ago was caused by criminal activity, said a prosecutor asked by Gov. Jeb Bush to look into the case.
Bush, who asked State Attorney Bernie McCabe to further investigate Schiavo's case after her autopsy last month, responded Thursday by saying he considers the state's involvement with the matter finished.
"Based on your conclusions, I will follow your recommendation that the inquiry by the state be closed," Bush said in a two-sentence response to McCabe. The governor is vacationing in Maine and couldn't be reached for further comment, said officials in his office.
In asking last month that McCabe look again into what put Schiavo in a persistent vegetative state, Bush had cited an alleged gap in time between when Schiavo's husband Michael found her and when he called 911 as something that remained unsettled.
McCabe said, however, that while such discrepancies may exist in the record, Michael Schiavo's statements that he called 911 immediately had been consistent.
"This consistency, coupled with the varying recollections of the precise time offered by other interested parties, lead me to the conclusion that such discrepancies are not indicative of criminal activity and thus not material to any potential investigation," McCabe wrote in a letter to Bush accompanying his report dated June 30 but not released until Thursday.
Terri Schiavo died March 31 from dehydration after her feeding tube was disconnected despite efforts by Bush, her parents and some state national lawmakers to keep her alive. Michael Schiavo had fought to have the tube disconnected, saying his wife wouldn't have wanted to remain in such a state.
The autopsy left unanswered the question of why Terri Schiavo's temporarily heart stopped, cutting oxygen off from her brain. Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin was thus unable to determine with reasonable certainty a "manner of death."
McCabe said there must be some fact or evidence indicating a criminal act caused the death to open a full homicide investigation in his office.
"A review of the available records, including Dr. Thogmartin's report, reveals no 'facts' or 'evidence' that indicate a criminal act ... was causative of Mrs. Schiavo's collapse or subsequent death," McCabe wrote. "There are several hypothetical theories that could be advanced, but I have concluded, though not with reasonable certainty, that the most likely hypothesis for the cause of her collapse was the one advanced during the 1992 malpractice litigation, i.e. an eating disorder.
"I realize that this review does not provide definitive answers to the questions you sought to have answered," McCabe wrote to Bush. "However, I feel comfortable in stating, without preconceptions, that these are the probable answers when one considers all of the records and reports available at this time."
Attorneys for Terri Schiavo's parents didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Michael Schiavo's attorney said he would comment after he'd had a chance to fully review McCabe's report.
The battle between Terri Schiavo's husband and parents over whether she should be allowed to die engulfed the courts, Congress, the White House and divided the country.
Bush was firmly on the side of her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and once before ordered her feeding tube reinserted. Her feeding tube was removed in October, 2003, but the Legislature passed an emergency law giving Bush the authority to step in. He did, ordering it reinserted six days later. The law that allowed him to do that was thrown out by the courts, leaving him unable to intervene when it was removed again this past March.
The attorneys in McCabe's office who did the latest investigation, Doug Crow and Bob Lewis, noted that their work wouldn't close the case in the minds of many.
"It is unrealistic to expect, considering the past decade of increasingly venomous litigation and the family members' disparate and irreconcilable beliefs as to Terri's wishes, that our office has the ability to resolve or ameliorate this long-standing dispute," Crow and Lewis wrote.
But they wrote, "It is obvious to us that there is no possibility of proving that anyone's criminal act was responsible for Mrs. Schiavo's collapse."
You are probably wasting your time posting this -- people on here will never believe there wasn't something criminal -- some have lost all common sense on a number of issues.
BTW, I did not agree with withdrawing food and water or her husband being her guardian under the circumstances.
I want to read Mark Fuhrman's book.
You should, it is great.
There's a great gulf between believing that a criminal act occurred, and being able to prove it in court beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt. In other words, it is possible to believe that someone can get away with murder, as might well have happened here.
I looked for a reference to Mark Fuhrman's new book, in vain.
Good.
I know.
But it needed to be posted.
I'm trying to figure out how hubby would have ever known that she would not recover from her state when he called 9-11. If you can convince me of that, I'd say there was a possible criminal act.
I agree with you 100%!
The burden of proof for a criminal charge is "beyond a reasonable doubt", not "beyond the shadow of a doubt" or "beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt."
Why would you do that?
Looks like a one sentence response to me...was there another sentence? What was it?
FMCDH(BITS)
The evidence was cremated.
There oughta be a law...
The crime we need to worry about happened in 2005. And it happened in Tallahassee and, to a lesser extent, Washington, D.C.
But we can count on the GOP to change the law and appoint judges who will protect life, so Terri did not die in vain.
I don't know whether to laugh at that last thought or cry.
"A review of the available records, including Dr. Thogmartin's report, reveals no 'facts' or 'evidence' that indicate a criminal act ... was causative of Mrs. Schiavo's collapse or subsequent death," McCabe wrote. "There are several hypothetical theories that could be advanced, but I have concluded, though not with reasonable certainty, that the most likely hypothesis for the cause of her collapse was the one advanced during the 1992 malpractice litigation, i.e. an eating disorder.
Bernie must not have gotten the memo.
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