Free Republic

– March 31, 2005 Terri Schiavo Everywhere we turn, people are talking about the life-and-death case that has been unfolding before us for the last few weeks. 41-year-old Terri Schiavo is being slowly and torturously killed through a government-sanctioned murder. When her feeding tube was withdrawn at the court-supported behest of her “husband” (a.k.a. “guardian”), Michael Schiavo, Terri was a healthy, albeit profoundly disabled, young woman who was very much alive. At this writing she is, by some miracle, still alive after nearly two weeks of starvation and dehydration. The likelihood that she will last the week is very slim....

With the impending death of Terri Schiavo, US euthanasia advocates have scored a public relations hat-trick. Within a single month Clint Eastwood won an Oscar for Million Dollar Baby and The Sea Inside, about a quadriplegic who commits suicide, was feted as the best foreign film. Now, after more than a decade of litigation, a 41-year-old brain-damaged Florida woman is slowly dying at her husband's request. What's more, recent polls show that most Americans are so confused about end-of-life treatment that they think that this is a good thing. Who is to blame for this fear of extreme disability? Pro-lifers...

We can all rest easy. Clearly the judges have everything under control, including who is worthy of a right to life finally. Now that they have successfully protected and preserved our right to die, we can rest assured that they will tend to all our other rights with equal vigor… It was close there for a while, some judges taking almost 24 hours to decide to defend our right to be starved and dehydrated to death once we have lost our usefulness to society. But in the end, they all stood tall, even in the face of enormous pressure from...

A spokesman for the family of Terri Schindler Schiavo said Wednesday the Florida judge presiding over her case "ignores the state’s laws and orders the premeditated killing of a disabled Florida woman by her husband." Pamela Hennessy, media director for the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, in a press release Wednesday called on disability and eldercare advocates to press for Circuit Judge George Greer’s "immediate impeachment." "If there is a single person following this who doesn’t believe Judge Greer has legislated from the bench, trampled Florida’s laws and deprived Terri Schiavo of her retained rights, they are simply not paying attention," Hennessy...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The state House Judiciary Committee chairman said Tuesday he will consider starting an impeachment investigation of the state judge in the Terri Schiavo case, but said he thought it unlikely that the judge would be impeached. Christian conservatives and advocates of the disabled have launched an Internet campaign and collected more than 28,000 electronic signatures in favor of impeaching Pinellas County Circuit Judge George Greer, who has presided for seven years over the legal battle between Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, and her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler. Greer allowed Michael Schiavo to have her nutrition and hydration...

George Felos, perhaps trying to ease his guilt, (though this is unlikely since one must have a conscience to feel guilt) and improve his image as a heartless ogre, went before cameras and fed the world one of the biggest lies it has ever heard. He related how "peaceful and beautiful" Terri is as she lay dying. I guess if dying of dehydration and starvation is so lovely, perhaps we should all die that way. Perhaps we should give that option to criminals on death row. We certainly should stop being concerned about the children in poor countries dying of...

I am convinced God uses trials like the Terri Schiavo case to test men. Pinellas County Circuit Court Judge George Greer was tested – and found wanting. He had seven years to consider this case and got it wrong every time. I don't know Greer personally, but I know many people like him. They go to church on Sunday and then between Monday and Friday lead lives with no seeming connection to what they hear preached in the pulpit, what they read in the Bible, what they claim to believe of the Christian faith. This may be the biggest single...

"Under the Florida Constitution, only the Judicial Qualifications Commission has authority to investigate complaints against Florida judges. Persons wishing to file a complaint should address materials to: Judicial Qualifications Commission 1110 Thomasville Road Tallahassee, FL 32303 (850) 488-1581 No further action will be taken by this office. Sincerely, Heidi Huelskoetter, M.S.W. Operations & Mgmt. Consultant Manager Office of Inspector General Department of Children and Families 850-488-1225 fax 850-488-1428

I am convinced God uses trials like the Terri Schiavo case to test men. Pinellas County Circuit Court Judge George Greer was tested – and found wanting. He had seven years to consider this case and got it wrong every time. I don't know Greer personally, but I know many people like him. They go to church on Sunday and then between Monday and Friday lead lives with no seeming connection to what they hear preached in the pulpit, what they read in the Bible, what they claim to believe of the Christian faith. This may be the biggest single...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Three judges have accepted appointments from the Indiana Supreme Court to preside and report about the charges levied against Benjamin Pfaff. Pfaff, in his second term on the bench in Elkhart Superior Court 1, has been accused of official misconduct by the Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications. The judge threatened a man at gunpoint during a December 2003 incident and later gave false information to investigators, the commission decided. Benjamin Pfaff In a short reply last month, Pfaff denied the charges. Steven David of Boone Circuit Court in central Indiana will be the presiding "master," as designated by...

Over the course of the past week, the Terri Schiavo case made headlines with its swift and unsuccessful journey through the federal courts. The string of court defeats might have left the impression that the case was doomed from the outset. Yet the litigation's failure may owe more to a poor tactical choice by the lawyers advising the Schindlers--Terri's parents--than to the case's underlying merits. The original Schindler complaint included a variety of federal constitutional and statutory claims. Each of them was weak at best, as was quickly reflected in federal district judge James Whittemore's ruling that the Schindlers had...

The judge who tried the Terri Schiavo case and most recently rejected Gov. Jeb Bush's request to intervene, received a campaign contribution from the lawyer pressing for the brain-injured woman's death, raising questions of a conflict of interest. According to Florida's Department of State, County Circuit Court Judge George W. Greer received a contribution of $250 for his 2004 re-election campaign from Felos & Felos, the law firm of George Felos. Felos, known as a "right-to-die" advocate, represents Terri Schiavo's estranged husband, Michael Schiavo, who won a court order from Greer to have the woman's life-sustaining feeding tube removed one...

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Death threats have been made against him for allowing Michael Schiavo to remove the feeding tube that has kept his 41-year-old wife alive for the past 15 years, and the Southern Baptist (search) church that Greer belonged to for years has asked him to leave the congregation. This past week, he parted ways with his Southern Baptist church, which had advocated keeping Terri Schiavo alive, after his pastor suggested it would be better if he left. "You must know that in all likelihood it is this case which will define your career and this case that you...

The starving of human being on hearsay evidence is WRONG. Its the duty of Jeb Bush to do the right thing.

Scientology, The Clearwater Bar Association, and Judge Greer Judge George W. Greer presides over Florida's Sixth Judicial Circuit Court. He is known internationally for the Terri Schindler Schiavo guardianship case. Pat Anderson, former attorney for the Schindlers, characterized Judge Greer's unprecedented rulings as "The Rule of Terri's Case." The Clearwater Bar Association is delighted with Judge Greer's performance in this particular case. They presented the John U. Bird award to the Pinellas-Pasco Circuit judge on May 15, 2004. This prestigious award, which is the Clearwater bar's highest honor for a judge, was granted to Judge Greer for the way he...

Whittaker Chambers called it the world's second oldest religion: "Ye shall be as gods." That temptation in the Garden has manifested itself in many forms over the centuries. Currently it's hanging out in a courtroom in Florida and similar places. I've been on the bench. I know what it's like to be all-powerful. Every decision I rendered was with the sure knowledge that there was very little likelihood of being overturned on appeal, or even of an appeal being taken. Part of my training as a Family Court Judge came from Judge Judy. Several of us spent an afternoon with...

Please cut/paste this sample email to the President requesting a Presidential pardon for Terri Schiavo, sign your name/addy, and then forward to everyone you know (and alert by phone call if possible to the email so they can take action immediately). This may be our last hope. Please pass this on to all lists you may be on here and elsewhere. Thank you. Subject: URGENT: PRESIDENTIAL PARDON FOR TERRI SCHIAVO To: President George Bush Subject: Need for Presidential order or pardon Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 10:39:05 -0700 It is clear after the confrontation of state and local police concerning...

George Greer is a 63-year-old probate judge of the circuit that covers Pinellas and Pasco Counties west of Tampa Bay. He was born in Brooklyn in 1942, and his parents moved the family to Dunedin, FL in the Tampa Bay area just after World War II (St. Pete Times, 3/18/05) Greer attended Largo High School in Clearwater, FL, and was cited for hunting without a license in 1959, when he was eighteen, and for underage drinking in 1962. Greer attended junior college in St. Petersburg for two and one half years, and then went to Florida State University in 1962....

Although Florida governor Jeb Bush has for all intents and purposes tossed in the towel in any eleventh-hour rescue of Terri Shiavo, at least one former legal advisor is admonishing the chief executive for not using the state's criminal laws as authority to intervene – without the need for family or judicial approval – and reinsert the hospice patient's feeding tube. Richard Thompson, the president and chief counsel of the Thomas Moore Law Center, says doing so would preserve the life of a material witness in a potential criminal case. The launching of a formal criminal investigation into possible abuse...

(CNSNews.com) - Gov. Jeb Bush is being compared to Pontius Pilate as he comes under intensive pressure from religious and pro-life groups to do whatever it takes to save Terri Schiavo's life. The groups that are pressuring Gov. Bush commend him for all he has done so far on Terri's behalf. But it hasn't worked -- and they say there is more that he can do. Dr. D. James Kennedy, the president of Coral Ridge Ministries, said that as governor, Jeb Bush is the only legal authority who can stop Terri from starving. "He must act and he must act...