Posted on 04/04/2005 5:51:26 AM PDT by Theodore R.
The execution of Terri Schiavo
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: April 4, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Terri Schiavo is dead. She did not die a natural death, unless you believe a court order to cut off food and water to a disabled woman until she dies of starvation and thirst is natural.
No, Terri Schiavo was executed by the state of Florida. Her crime? She was so mentally disabled as to be unworthy of life in the judgment of Judge George Greer. The execution was carried out at Woodside Hospice. An autopsy will reveal that Terri's vital organs shut down for lack of food and water. She did not die of the brain damage she suffered 15 years ago. She was put to death. We have crossed a watershed in America.
Michael Schiavo's argument that Greer found compelling was that this is what Terri wanted and she had told him so, though Michael never mentioned this until eight years after she was disabled.
Did Terri, at 26, really tell the man to whom she swore lifelong fidelity to find a way to kill her if she became handicapped? Is that what she had in mind when they pledged to stand by each other "in sickness and in health, 'til death do us part"?
Was Terri that different from her mom, dad, brother and sister, who fought with all they had to keep her alive so they could take care of her for all the years she had left? Why, one wonders, did this severely handicapped woman fight for two weeks against the dying of the light?
America is a great country because she is good country, and if ever she ceases to be good, she will cease to be great, Alexis de Toqueville is quoted as saying. Are we that America today? Are we the same kind of people? Would the country we grew up in have done this to a disabled woman?
Hubert Humphrey, a passionate liberal, once said, "The moral test of government is how [it] treats those who are in the dawn of life ... those who are in the twilight of life ... and those who are in the shadows of life."
In America, three in 10 in the dawn of life never see the light of day. They are destroyed in the womb because their very existence embarrasses or would encumber their parents. In the twilight of life, we have begun to provide our elderly ill with the means of assisted suicide. In Europe, euthanasia has become involuntary in some nursing homes. In the shadows of life – the sick, the needy, the handicapped – there is now in this land we once called "God's country" a chance the state will put you to death.
The motivations of the good folks praying for Terri outside the hospice one can understand. The motives of her parents one can understand. Even the motives of Michael Schiavo one can understand. He wants to be rid of Terri to start a new life with his new family.
What is inexplicable is why he did not get a divorce and let her go. What is inexplicable is the behavior of the media talking heads, who seemed so desperately anxious that the judge's ruling not be reversed and that Terri die. Why were they so pro-death?
One must not interfere in a family decision, they say. But these are the same folks who always demand interference if a father takes a belt to discipline his 14-year-old delinquent son.
This is what Terri would have wanted, they say. We have no right to interfere. But what Terri would have wanted is unclear and in dispute. And if there is disagreement, why not come down on the side of life? Why come down on the side of death, which is final and forever? Why were so many progressives on the side of death for Terri Schiavo?
Conservatives are hypocrites, they charge. The Right opposes judicial activism and preaches states' rights. But in Terri's case, the Right clamored for judicial activism and rejected states' rights.
But this is absurd. The judicial activist in Terri's case is Greer, who sentenced a brain-damaged woman to death by starvation and dehydration. If this is not judicial activism, in violation of a citizen's right to life, due process of law, and not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, what is?
And what is there left to say about that angel of death, the American Civil Liberties Union? As Nat Hentoff writes, the ACLU, "which would be passionately criticizing state court decisions and demanding due process if Terri were a convict on death row, has shamefully served as co-counsel for her husband, Michael Schiavo, in his insistent desire to have her die."
But whose rights were in mortal peril here? Why was the ACLU not at the door of that hospice, denouncing Greer the way it would be at the door of a penitentiary denouncing Jeb Bush, if the ACLU even suspected an innocent man was being put to death?
We have turned a sad page in the history of America's decline.
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Hospice Woodside reports that their new shrubbery made it through the protests okay. They were so worried about the new plants that lined the sidewalks where the Pinellas Park PD were arresting children.
When they start deciding to issue orders to kill they damn sure ought to have a jury.
Or the judges need to be told in no uncertain terms that such orders are totally out of bounds. Remember - Greer went beyond legitimizing a decision by the Guardian. He ORDERED the Guardian to do it. Big difference. He was completely outside of any rational limit to his authority.
But hey, Greer thinks he's a big man. County judge an' all. Beats being a lousy real estate lawyer. Hey, lookit me, I'm God!
These are among the most contemptible creatures who ever lived: poll-driven drones who misread what the polls were saying. But if the primary voters retain them, as I suspect, the sin will be squarely with voters too.
The "Slow Torture" and execution of terri schiavo.
The best article on the subject...period.
Pat is a clear, analytical thinker. When he gets it right, he is well worth reading.
Good article!
Indeed, had Greer ordered that the guardian should only allow such food and water by mouth as the guardian deemed would pose no risk of aspiration, and had the guardian 'just so happened' to decide that anything would pose a risk, that might have been kinda sorta legal. But Greer's order should be regarded as having been prima facie illegal. If Florida used the gallows for execution, I'd say Greer should be a hanging judge for having issued it.
Or if Terri had been a lesbian."
Or a dog.
I'm sorry, but I don't believe that. These are tough hard-hearted women. They don't weep over Terri.
Okay, Nancy A. said she wept. They are aligned with Jim King's Hospice lobbyist. They were probably crock tears. The www.sptimes.com reported the weeping. They will spend the next five or ten years doing Terri news, slanted to protect Judge Greer, Felos, J. Whittemore and Michael S, Hosopice, etc.
Terri ping! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
He is a great writer, so very well said.
I agree. America is a far lesser country today than just a few weeks ago. And, all because of Pinellas County Florida.
What next do they have in store for America? More killings, more wrong is right and right is wrong, what next Florida, what next?
Thanks for the post. Great article. BTTT!
Interesting that their tears were not shed for Terri and her death, they were shed only because they were called murderers.
Shows you EXACTLY where their priorities are - their own political futures.
We need the names of those who voted "No" to Terri's life.
Any legislator who voted in favor of maintaining judge Greer's decision has blood on his or her hands.Period.
ClancyJ wrote: Interesting that their tears were not shed for Terri and her death, they were shed only because they were called murderers."
They are in the company of Michael Schiavo, who in the past couple of weeks, was singing the blues for being called a murderer and guilty of adultery on Larry King Live. It was difficult to watch the monster sobbing over the accusations. Pretending they were false, even though he has two children, as proof his marriage vows meant nothing. Pretending he wasn't a murderer, when it's obvious he sought the court's help to legally murderer his wife.
His tears were for himself only. I doubt he ever cried a single tear for the woman he abused for 15 years and whose efforts caused her death by torture of starvation and thirst. He could have easily avoided being called a murderer by giving up the guardianship of Terri to her family who loved her so much.
Michael Schiavo would have also sparred the whinning legislature women of their phony tears too. Schiavo's greed and need to eliminate a burden started the horrible ball rolling that would eventually murder Terri Schindler.
> And I think that any appellate court that wanted to could have found "reversible error" and ordered a re-trial. But again I'm thinking of a criminal case . . .
The legal principle of "reversible error" is applicable in both civil and criminal law. In fact, David Gibbs was informed by another (eagle-eyed) Florida attorney of a reversible error basis of a critical Greer ruling. But Greer, in his zeal to prevent Terri from escaping his execution order, dismissed the reversible error motion with the explanation that it wouldn't have had a significant bearing on his decision -- so his decision would still have been as he initially ruled.
One incredible piece of evidence, constituting fraud on the court, was provided by HINO himself during a repeat appearance on Larry King Live the night Terri's feeding tube was removed on 3/18. It could (and I believe should) have been jumped on immediately for a new legal action.
On national TV, with Felos physically at his client's side, HINO rambled in his comments to Larry King and made two statements that reversed his court testimony to Greer. Wish I could have been inside Felos' mind at that moment. At a mimimum, Felos probably felt at least disconcerted.
Unfortunately, this unexpected slip by HINO wasn't pursued legally and Terri is now dead.
As far as your comment in the next post, #11,
> I'd love to see Michael sue for libel. What a trial that would be! Never gonna happen.
HINO deserves to be sued for a much higher crime. No statute of limitations for murder. As long as he lives, that remains a charge he might someday have to face -- and possibly Felos and Greer as well. Quite an evil triumvir that bunch.
> Probate courts don't have jury trials; those are for civil cases.
Half right. Probate courts don't have jury trials, but are civil law proceedings.
> Certainly the laws need to be changed that in life and death cases, ...
Most definitely.
> ... not just one judge with an obvious agenda.
This JINO (judge in name only as proved by investigation done by theempirejournal.com) could still find himself in a heap more trouble than merely, possibly, finding himself being at least impeached by the Florida legislature. He orchestrated and ordered Terri's execution by his civil order. If sufficient facts are eventually revealed and a suit about Greer lacking authority for such an (extra-legal, illegal and unlawful) order should ever reach a court of law, it could finally, horrifically and inescapably, be recognized that Terri was murdered.
> ... A legislative body, (in this case the FL Legislature), whose task it is to create laws did so, with a very vague "Clear and Convincing" clause in it. This clause was exploited, and Terri Schiavo fell victim to it.
And the history behind inclusion of this "vague 'Clear and Convincing'" legislative clause began after HINO's first suit to remove Terri's feeding tube was dismissed in 1998. In preparation for a 2nd attempt, Felos went to work in quiet collaboration with Sen. Jim King for this change. Then in 1999, HINO resumed his suit, and with Felos' trial lawyer expertise -- well, we all know the tragic result.
Terri's family wanted a lock of Terri's hair and some of Terri's ashes, but Michael said "No."
That SOB Greer probably was the judge who ruled this.
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