Appeals court ruling favors Terri Schiavo's parents

Boston Glob ^ | 1/13/04 | staff

[CFW]

Appeals court ruling favors Terri Schiavo's parents

The Associated Press Published on: 02/13/04

TAMPA, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush and the parents of a severely brain-damaged woman won two appellate court victories Friday in their quest to keep her alive against her husband's wishes.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that Bush's attorneys will be allowed to question witnesses in the court battle over a law that gave the governor authority to reinsert Terri Schiavo's feeding tube after her husband had it removed in October.

The appeals court also ruled that Pinellas Circuit Court Judge W. Douglas Baird did not follow judicial rules when he denied her parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, the ability to intervene in the constitutional challenge to the law.

The appeals court ordered Baird to hold further proceedings on the issue.

Schiavo's husband, Michael, has been battling the Schindlers in court for years to remove Terri's feeding tube so she can die. He says she would not have wanted to be kept alive artificially.

The Schindlers doubt their 40-year-old daughter, who lives in a Clearwater nursing home, had any such end-of-life wishes and believe her condition could improve with therapy. Their daughter has been in a persistent vegetative state for more than 13 years after collapsing from a chemical imbalance.

[JOHN W K]

I don't thing Baird is off the case!

[pollywog]

Praise the Lord ping!

YES OH YES!!!!!!!! Praising the Lord tonight!!!! God is so GOOD. MAY JESUS CHRIST BE EXHALTED.

[floriduh voter]

Gephardt was actually against Terri being killed. Dean wants everybody to be killed imo, especially Kerry supporters.

[floriduh voter]

Well, you are newbie and I can't speculate on your late arrival at Free Republic but the more freepers the better. There have already been over 20 pages and approximately 85K posts re: Terri's fight. She's had her fortieth birthday on December 3rd. If you want to learn about Terri, click on my name. I saved a lot of Terri threads including the one with over 5000 posts on it. That's where all the research is if you really want to develope an informed opinion. Free Republic will toughen you up if you're really here to say. Then you'll see that I am nice and there's much worse some days. lol floriduh voter

[floriduh voter]

I don't have a ping list but join sweet liberty;kimmie7;nyer;nickcarraway's ping lists for Terri updates.

[GOP_Thug_Mom]

Thank you, Lord!

(and I'll take some pings, NYer!)

[floriduh voter]

It was reported in January I believe that Baird was transferred to the criminal court system but for some reason, I believe he was holding on to Schiavo v. Bush. It doesn't make sense though however.

[Ohioan from Florida]

I was just wondering...and maybe one of y'all can help. Now that Bush will be allowed to take depositions, I think it would be interesting to see who Jodi has as her lawyer. 'Cause Felos is Michael's and in his view, Terri's also. Would he be allowed to advise Jodi during deposition testimony? Wouldn't she need to have someone other than one of the lawyers on Michael's team (and therefore, if they truly believe they represent Terri's interests, it would conflict to represent Jodi as well)? Am I making sense to anyone else?

[pollywog]

I watched Greta and thought she really did a good job. Bush's attorney really seemed confident. I am going to email Greta and let her know how much I appreciate this coverage.

[Future Useless Eater]

Thanks Fr_addict,
Greta put Terri's breaking news as her LEAD STORY!! I've got it on Tivo and will upload it soon. It gets repeated at 3am Eastern.

Everyone, please thank Greta for leading with Terri's news, and giving it the attention it deserves. The more email, the better! (Remember, Greta has said she'd even like to take her show to Florida to do interviews)

It also helps if everyone visits her gretawire.com page after she's done something 'real good' like tonight

Ontherecord@foxnews.com -On the Record with Greta - Greta Van Susteren

[pollywog]

I was just wondering...and maybe one of y'all can help. Now that Bush will be allowed to take depositions, I think it would be interesting to see who Jodi has as her lawyer. 'Cause Felos is Michael's and in his view, Terri's also. Would he be allowed to advise Jodi during deposition testimony? Wouldn't she need to have someone other than one of the lawyers on Michael's team (and therefore, if they truly believe they represent Terri's interests, it would conflict to represent Jodi as well)? Am I making sense to anyone else?

That makes complete sense Ohioan. If, in fact Michael is " supposedly" speaking on behalf of Terri, Jodi cannot obtain the same lawyer. This case is really taking some strange turns!!

[Victoria Delsoul]

Big bump.

[Ohioan from Florida]

Well, unfortunately I missed the opening of her show...turned her on at 10:10 pm. RATS! I kept watching and waiting for news about Terri. So now I'll either have to wait up (or set my alarm). VCR's not working so taping's not an option tonite. Would appreciate anyone who can post a written transcript when one becomes available!

I'm still joyfully celebrating God's wonderful news from earlier! Terri doesn't get many breaks her way, so we have to enjoy them to the fullest when we get the chance!

Thank you, Lord, for giving Gov. Bush and Terri's parents a chance to have their pleas heard!

[Ohioan from Florida]

Oh, good, I'm glad it made sense to someone else!!

Now Michael and Jodi may have to cough up at least some of their own money for a lawyer, instead of dipping into Terri's coffers again...unless Greer approves it (and wouldn't that be just like him!)

[drlevy88]

Never fear, the ACLU will fund all of them. A little conflict of interest never stopped them.

[Ohioan from Florida]

You're right. In my glee I had temporarily forgotten about them. : (

[drlevy88]

Actually I hope it dissolves into an internecine catfight. Burn up those ACLU dollars.

[Ohioan from Florida]

How could that happen?

[Ohioan from Florida]

Oh...sorry..it must be getting late for me. For some reason I thought you meant the ACLU would be fighting against itself, and it will in the idea that they would be funding both Jodi's and Mikey's litigation.

Maybe I'd better go to bed...although I was gonna try to wait up just another hour for Greta's show.

[T'wit]

>> The focus of the things I've heard has been on the husband and his rights and all the things that have been done against him.

New friend, you have an earful coming! There is every reason to think that Michael tried to kill Terri, and that's how she got the brain damage. The story that she "collapsed" from "chemical imbalance" is nonsense and can be refuted. A healthy young woman does not simply keel over for no reason.

Several of us have come to believe, on the basis of our own investigation, that Michael assaulted her at the end of a furious all-day argument over her spending $80 to get her hair done. We have a bone scan / X-ray diagnosis indicating that Terri suffered major traumas -- far worse than anything she could have suffered by falling down. Yet the police never investigated the case as attempted homicide.

We think it is especially ironic that Michael is now using the courts in effect to finish the murder that nearly succeeded 14 years ago.