Had Michael been charged on the night of the attack, it is likely that he might have ended up convicted of agravated battery rather than attempted murder. By now, however, the statute of limitations has expired on the battery charge.
If Michael were charged today, even if attempted murder would still be chargeable (I suspect, but am not sure, that the statute of limitations has expired on that too) his defense attourney would be able to argue that he was only being prosecuted on the more serious charge because the state couldn't try him on the lesser one. Not sure a jury would buy it, but they might.
You don't ignore some crimes a person has committed because that person commits MORE crimes, even if it is against the SAME victim.
No, but one does generally ignore crimes a person has committed whose statute of limitations has elapsed. If Terri and her records receive proper scrutiny, evidence of the earlier crime may well come to light. But the focus should be on the present--to the extent that one finds out about the past, that's great but it should not distract from what's going on now.
Sorry if this was posted earlier--
Our bodies, our selves
Imaging tests like the ones described in the Neurology study may give us new insight into the interior life of brain-damaged patients. They may even provide a scientific basis for comparing patients like Scantlin and Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who has been kept alive for years over her husband's objections.
http://www.freep.com/news/metro/dickerson14e_20050214.htm
Nor did anyone suggest we get distracted from what is important in the present. What you tuned into was a passing conversation, and not one upon which posters were intensely focused.
As I said in my previous post what happened the night Terri collapsed cannot be IGNORED. At some point, there should be an investigation. No one is calling for the investigation to occur at this very moment, because we are all aware the one issue, saving Terri from being starved AGAIN, is IMPERATIVE and takes FIRST PRIORITY at this time.
I do not know the statute of limitations for attempted murder in Florida and haven't time to research it presently.
The biggest distraction I have had on this thread to date, is my conversation with you. Had I been calling for people to make phone calls NOW, regarding the issue you raised, I could understand your attention to it. Since that simply was not the case (and a review of my posts proves it), I find it odd that you chose to make such a big deal of it.