Posted on 05/05/2005 5:51:50 AM PDT by NYer
George W. Greer, the Florida judge who ordered Terri Schiavo's feeding tube removed, will receive an award today from his law colleagues, but a spiritual adviser to the late brain-injured woman's parents still insists the jurist is a "murderer."
"On the night before Terri Schiavo died, I said to the national media that Judge Greer was a murderer," said Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life.
"I repeat that today," he said. "I use the word not in its legal meaning but in its moral meaning, that is, a deliberate action or series of actions that intentionally kill an innocent person."
Greer, who presided over the Schiavo case for seven years, will be honored with the Special Justice Award by the local West Pasco Bar Association.
Schiavo died March 31, nearly two weeks after her life-sustaining feeding tube was removed by Greer's order, carried out more than a decade of bitter legal wrangling between parents Robert and Mary Schindler and their son-in-law Michael Schiavo, who contended Terri had verbally expressed a desire to not live if she were in such a condition.
"Terri was not dying until she stopped receiving food and water," Pavone said. "Once deprived of that sustenance, she died. It does not require any legal or medical expertise to recognize that as murder. Nobody who has lost the basic capability to understand that should be honored."
Alan Scott Miller, a member of the West Pasco Bar Association, told the Tampa Tribune Greer's professionalism and integrity was punctuated by the way he handled the Schiavo case.
"He's getting this award for all of his contributions on the bench, not just the Schiavo case,'' Miller said. "It's like a lifetime achievement award for an actor.''
Pavone said, "Whatever judgment, furthermore, is made on Judge Greer's legal authority to do what he did, no court has the moral authority to directly and deliberately take innocent life, and those ordered to carry out such decisions are morally obliged to resist them by conscientious objection. Pope John Paul II made that teaching clear in his encyclical letter 'The Gospel of Life.'"
Some of the appeals to Greer's rulings, which were upheld, argued there was not enough clear and convincing evidence that Terri Schiavo had expressed a wish to not live in her current condition.
Greer's court in Pinellas County, Fla., determined she was in a persistent vegetative state. The Schindlers countered that assessment with statements from neurologists who claimed she was in a "minimally conscious state," able to respond to stimuli.
The Schindlers had pleaded with their son-in-law to allow them to be with their daughter in her final hours, but according to family spokesmen, they were not present when she died.
Pavone was in Terri's room at Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., about 15 minutes before she died. But the priest said he was instructed to leave 10 minutes before her death by order of Michael Schiavo.
"His heartless cruelty continues until this very last moment," Pavone said of Terri's estranged husband, who for 10 years has lived with another woman with whom he has two children.
After Terri died, immediate family members were allowed in the room, the priest said.
Pavone said on the day of her death, "This is not only a death, with all the sadness that brings, this is a killing. We not only grieve for Terri, we grieve that our nation would allow such an atrocity as this, and we pray it will never happen again."
For background on the 15-year saga, read "The whole Terri Schiavo story."
WorldNetDaily has been reporting on the Terri Schiavo story since 2002 – far longer than most other national news organization – and exposing the many troubling, scandalous, and possibly criminal, aspects of the case that to this day rarely surface in news reports. Read WorldNetDaily's unparalleled, in-depth coverage of the life-and-death fight over Terri Schiavo, including over 150 original stories and columns.
Court documents and other information are posted on the Schindler family website.
Links to all "Terri briefs" regarding the governor's defense of Terri's Law are on the Florida Supreme Court website, public information.
Though I see your point (a time and place for judicial activism), I find it irrational at best for blaming a judge for following the law...why isn't the legislature changing the law now? Where is the big push?
Why does George Greer wear that black robe to work?
Swine look really funny walking around on their hind legs, no matter how much you try to disguise them.
His colleagues are whistling past the graveyard, pretending that they can ignore justice the way he did without consequences.
No, the courts have not forgotten the natural law, or whatever it is you describe. The law may be based on religious doctrine, but the Code of Florida trumps everything else (save federal statutes and the US Constitution that preempt Florida law) including the Bible. Natural law, whatever that may be, does not take precedence over Florida Law. That is law school 101, my friend.
You still haven't cited the particular law you think he followed. And the appellate judges didn't consider the merits of any motions or petitions. If you were a judge, would you allow a husband who was living with another woman and had children with her to continue as the guardian? Would you find it to be a conflict of interest of remove him as guardian?
Which law would that be? Do you have a statute number?
"With all due repect to the Father, this Judge, along with every other court this case came before, decided the case based on THE LAW. If people don't like the result, then change THE LAW...any other result would have been JUDICIAL ACTIVISM...something none of us (I presume) want."
I hate to belabor the obvious, but THEY DID CHANGE THE LAW - AND THE COURTS IGNORED IT.
By the way, your soapbox is upside-down. Do you need some help to climb out of it?
Unfortunately, the scenario you describe, is Florida law. I can get on lexis and pull the statute if you want...but I think that would be a waste of time, considering you will not change your position. Read the case...the statute is cited.
It is a conflict of interest...no doubt about that.
Ironically, if judges followed the same logic that this Florida judge followed (deferrence to the state legislature), we would have a much easier time stamping out abortion.
No, they took the easy way out and half-assed a law that only pertained to a single person...I am not a Florida lawyer (Virginia/ New York) so I have no idea why that would not fly in Florida...but seeing as how every single court shot them down, I seriously doubt there was some conspiracy going on to kill the poor woman.
Again, if judges used the logic that the courts applied in the Schiavo case, abortion would be a lot easier to stamp out.
I wonder how many of the members of the West Pasco Bar Association are board members of the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast.
Do you think the petition at the following link should have been granted or denied? Why?
http://www.apfn.org/Schiavo/PetExpedJudIntervention091003.htm
All courts refused to review the findings of fact. No court reviewed the copious conflicts of interest.
Why didn't Scalia, Thomas and the rest of the Supreme Court step in (they declined to hear the case on multiple occasions, deferring to the judgment of the several courts that ruled inthe husbad's favor)...believe me, it is not as easy as you think.
For the record, I hate what happened. But it is way to easy to blame the judges.
What law did the judge follow?
The one that states the husband (spouse) gets to make the decision as to what her wishes were.
All Florida has to do is require a living will...make the person put it in writing that they don't want to be kept alive...if that happens, puff....no more controversy...
So, where is the legislature on this issue now?
Every single court did not want to get involved. They just passed the buck in their own spineless way. Basically, they are complicit in the murder of this woman.
The rush to put this woman to death was absolutely ludicrous...
And anyway, didn't Judge Greer break the law by not adhering to the law that Congress passed? Didn't he break the law by not accepting the subpoenas?
The man was shacking up with another woman and had two kids by her! Isn't that an obvious conflict of interest?
No, they didn't pass the buck. Most judges, believe it or not, want to follow the law. Many judges, think the laws they are asked to enforce stink (mandatory minimum sentences is one such issue, though I kind of like them). Make no mistake, judges, for the most part, are not spineless.
Did the judge get it wrong? Don't know. But he wasn't overturned on appeal (and one appeal went to a federal court that had 2 Republican appointees and 1 democratic appointee).
It is a tragedy. But I don't think anger at the justices is the correct way to go about changing the system. Anger at the husband, hell yes. Bottom line, where is the legislature now? Have they done anything to change the current law that would allow a potentially conflicted spouse to make a life or death decision in lieu of a written will?
Answer: the Florida legislature is AWOL.
The rest of the Supreme Court? Sheesh, these people are split seven ways from Sunday. The appeal had to go to Anthony Kennedy. He has jurisdiction over emergency appeals from that area. We have no idea how he handled it. Did he just dismiss it himself, or did he ask others if the wanted to hear it, and if so, who said what? All we know is there were not at least four(the minimum number) justices who agreed to hear it. Judge Bork told Sean Hannity that he predicted they would not hear it if for no other reason than the federal law that was passed giving her parents federal court access was about only Terri, not a general class of people, and that the Court does not and would not agree to hear an appeal about one person.
How can I argue that one...I agree with you...but the law states the spouse makes the decision. It sucks. He is an assh*le. But the law is the law.
Again, where is the legislature now? Why won't they pass a law requiring a written will? They seem not to care now that the cameras are gone.
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