Result of the State Attorney's inquiry (Terri Schiavo -- full text of prosecutors' memo)

St. Petersburg Times ^ | July 8, 2005 | Prosecutors Doug Crow and Bob Lewis

[FairOpinion]

I believe it is unrealistic to expect, considering the past decade of increasingly venomous litigation and 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. This occurance has been the object of continuing litigation for the past twelve years. Most of the pertinent "facts" are in the public record and have been considered and reconsidered by lawyers, jurors, judges and a myriad of experts. Our office has twice been asked to consider accusations against Michael Schiavo - once in 2003 based upon contact from Mr. and Mrs. Schindler and again at the request of the Governor's staff earlier this year - and found insufficient evidence of any prosecutable offense to justify a criminal investigation.

Having reviewed the report and discussed the autopsy investigation with Dr. Thogmartin and his chief investigator Bill Pellan in detail and having also reviewed transcripts of the 1992 and 2002 court proceedings along with documents previously supplied to us by the Schindler family, it is obvious to us that there is no possibility of proving that anyone's criminal act was responsible for Mrs. Schiavo's collapse.

[FairOpinion]

blah, blah, blah.

Whitewash.

[Torie]

One should prosecute without evidence of a probable cause nature proving a crime. None exists here; it is all speculation. That is what the memo said. It would be unethical. Deal with it.

[FairOpinion]

They made no attempt to even try to find out anything. The only time they spent is the time they took to write this memo, probably ghost written for them by Felos, "just to be helpful".

[softwarecreator]

Exactly.  They keep trying and trying ... just hoping ONE report will support them ... time to give it up.

[NJ_gent]

Ah HA! YOU'RE part of the conspiracy TOO! We've CAUGHT you! Everyone's IN on it! The Florida courts, the medical examiner, the Federal courts, the Florida legislature, a bunch of Florida police, the governor of Florida, the US Congress, the President, a whole bunch of Freepers, the DA who investigated, and now YOU! How could you join the millions and millions of conspirators, all conspiring to cover this up?!

:-)

[steenkeenbadges]

LOL...but sad too.

[Nathan Zachary]

Don't forget me! LoL!

[TheSpottedOwl]

Having reviewed the report and discussed the autopsy investigation with Dr. Thogmartin and his chief investigator Bill Pellan in detail and having also reviewed transcripts of the 1992 and 2002 court proceedings along with documents previously supplied to us by the Schindler family, it is obvious to us that there is no possibility of proving that anyone's criminal act was responsible for Mrs. Schiavo's collapse.

How bloody convenient. The police department fails to investigate, judge Greer throws out any evidence that could implicate MS, and everyone is in bed with one another in that hellhole.

Two words...Mark Furhman.

[jwalsh07]

We will never know why her heart stopped the first time in her abbreviated life. We will never know her state of consciousness when the state ordered her hydration and food removed. We do know that a probate judge in Florida holds the power to order, as a state actor, the death of one of its citizens convicted of nothing and with far less than evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. And we know that when that happens a good many so called conservatives oppose judicial review at the federal level of state ordered death sentences to anybody but those criminally convicted.

[Torie]

We don't know a lot. Thus a prosecution would be unethical. But we know that the legal issue was centered around the matter of carry out Terri's wishes, and her current mental state attending same, not ascertaining her guilt. It was not a criminal proceeding.

[jwalsh07]

I agree a prosecution would be unethical. Worse even, prosecution absent evidence is persecution. I'll let it lie there.

[NJ_gent]

Same thing happens in Texas, including to two children since the law was passed. Living people are denied the medical care that keeps them living based on inability to pay when doctors determine there is no hope of recovery. This happens against the wishes of family members and next of kin. Like it or not, the next of kin for Terry Shiavo was her husband. It was her next of kin's decision to end the care for her, and the hospice complied.

As for Federal court review, I'm afraid they have no jurisdiction. They never did. The Congress ignored that in a politically motivated attempt to latch on to an emotionally charged subject. The Federal courts balked at the notion that they had any say in the matter and properly kicked the case out of their courtrooms.

Sorry, but nowhere in the Constitution is any such power enumerated for the Federal government. My argument ends with that cold, hard logic, and does not extend to emotional attachments or feelings.

The assertion that there's some manner of criminal conspiracy behind all this is about as laughable as the guy suing the Federal government to keep space aliens from beaming instructions into his brain. That assertion requires that thousands of people from around the country at all levels of government be involved in a stealth conspiracy against a woman who's been effective braindead for how long? This conspiracy beats the alien bodies at Area 51 by a longshot.

[Torie]

When one looks up the word "speculation" in the dictionary, your post to me will be there as a paradigmatic exemplar of same. And so it goes.

[GloriaJane]

I just watched a piece the other day, I think it was on Morry Povich? But they had caught a father on tape smothering his son by holding his hand over the child's little face putting him into cardiac arrest. I thought of Terri.

[Earthdweller]

Nothing unexpected here..we knew this would happen down in corrupt Clearwater. Moving on.

[The Red Zone]

The Constitution promises that no one may be deprived of life without "due process of law." At the time that was written, none of the founding fathers foresaw a life being made the subject of a civil proceeding.

[birbear]

I agree a prosecution would be unethical. Worse even, prosecution absent evidence is persecution. I'll let it lie there.

I wish everybody else around here would.

[The Red Zone]

Well, there is another Government that Michael will have to answer to, and he can't lawyer his way out of that one. Satan is chuckling.

[birbear]

Well, there is another Government that Michael will have to answer to, and he can't lawyer his way out of that one. Satan is chuckling.

Personally, I don't give a rat's bass about what happens to Michael. He seemed kind of sleazy and probably has much to answer for.

But I've never understood the fascination of this case by so many people here on FR. I never "got it"? Why did it make the top news story of my podunk little town 3000 miles away from Florida? It's a tragedy, I get that. But the amount of passion that a lot -- A LOT -- of people had, not for Terri, but for this case, seemed a bit extreme to me. It's like the whole of civilization rested on what was done about her plight.

At some point, ya gotta believe something. Since I have nothing vested in this case, I choose to believe that those who know more than I do investigated the case, see no criminal charges are warranted, and go on with their business.

I'm not big on conspiracy theories anyway...but this one just seems WAY over the top.

I don't know Terri, I've never met the lady, and didn't pay attention to the reports about her. If it were me, I'd say, "Let me rest in peace."

[FairOpinion]

"It's like the whole of civilization rested on what was done about her plight. "


You got it. It did. This was the first step towards the death of civilization: the first legal murder of an innocent woman.