Posted on 03/26/2005 8:34:26 AM PST by Houmatt
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) -- Terri Schiavo's parents will not ask a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision that left their brain-damaged daughter without her feeding tube, leaving one of their last hopes with a state judge who has ruled against them before, one of their lawyers said Saturday.
A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta refused Friday to order the reconnection of the tube, which was removed March 18.
The parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, had planned to ask the full appeals court to review that ruling, but later decided against it, attorney Barbara Weller said. She did not explain the decision.
The parents made another desperate plea to Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer on Friday to keep their daughter alive, saying she tried to say "I want to live" just minutes before her feeding tube was removed. Greer was expected to announce a decision by noon Saturday.
In their motion, the Schindlers claim their daughter said "AHHHHH" and "WAAAAAAA" when asked to repeat the phrase "I want to live."
The appeal is seen as a long shot because Greer was the judge who ordered Schiavo's feeding tube removed. Doctors have said Schiavo's previous utterances were involuntary moans consistent with someone in a vegetative state.
Attorneys for Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, argued the Schindlers had abandoned all pretense of the law and were simply making "a pure emotional appeal." Michael Schiavo says his wife would not want to be kept alive artificially.
State and federal courts have repeatedly ruled against the Schindlers, who grew increasingly anguished as their daughter entered her second week without the tube that sustained her for 15 years.
Doctors have said the 41-year-old woman would probably die within a week or two of the tube being removed. By Friday, dehydration was taking its toll. Terri Schiavo's tongue and eyes were bleeding and her skin was flaking off, Weller said.
"Terri is weakening. She's down to her last hours. Something has to be done and has to be done quick," said Bob Schindler, who visited his daughter Friday morning. After a later visit, he added: "I told her that we're still fighting for her, and she shouldn't give up because we're not. But I think the people who are anxious to see her die are getting their wish."
Schindler attorney David Gibbs III urged Greer to act quickly on the motion filed Friday because he expected "Terri to step into eternity this Easter weekend." George Felos, an attorney for Michael Schiavo, said the belief Terri Schiavo can speak was "crossing the line" into an abuse of the legal system.
The ruling Friday by a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court was the third time in four days the court had denied an emergency request made by Schiavo's parents. In its decision, the panel said it had already ruled on most of the issues in the latest appeal and other issues raised did not apply to the case.
Bob Schindler also pleaded with Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene by taking temporary custody of their daughter while court challenges are argued.
"With the stroke of his pen, he could stop this," Bob Schindler said. "He's put Terri through a week of hell and my family though a week of hell. I implore him to put a stop to this. He has to stop it. This is judicial homicide."
Bush, who has been a staunch supporter of the Schindlers, said Thursday he is not willing to go beyond the boundaries of his powers and that he was hoping the courts would provide relief.
"We are continuing to do whatever we can, and we are pursuing all the options available to us in this case," Bush spokesman Jacob DiPietre said.
Terri Schiavo suffered brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped briefly from a chemical imbalance believed to have been brought on by an eating disorder. She left no living will.
She went without food and water in 2003 when the feeding tube was removed for six days and five hours. It was reinserted when Bush and the Legislature pushed through a law that was later thrown out by the state Supreme Court.
Outside the hospice, eight more people - including a 10-year old boy and 13-year-old twin girls - were arrested Friday for trying to bring her water.
"I don't want her to die," Joshua Heldreth, 10, from North Carolina, said before his arrest. "I'm not afraid because God is with me."
A handful of protesters remained outside Terri Schiavo's hospice overnight.
"I'm so discouraged, I feel so helpless," said Christine Ambrusko, a student from Atlanta. "I don't know how in our civilized country we can allow a person to be starved to death with so many questions unanswered."
Also Friday, the FBI said a man was arrested in Fairview, N.C., allegedly for offering a $250,000 bounty for Michael Schiavo's death and $50,000 for that of a judge in the case. The FBI did not identify the judge.
Richard Alan Meywes allegedly sent the threatening e-mail Tuesday to two Tampa-area news organizations and the host of a national conservative talk show, the FBI said.
Meywes was taken into custody at his home and charged with murder for hire and with the transmission of interstate threatening communications, the FBI said. If convicted, Meywes could face up to 15 years in prison and fines up to $500,000.
NO according to Fox as well. Parents are appealing to the 11th,again.
Good job getting people's hopes up with lies and spamming numerous threads.
FOX just reported that the judge said NO. AGAIN! I hope this monster suffers in his conscience for the rest of his life for this. I hope he never rests easy again. The bastard.
I didn't believe the Fox report anyway. I never watch the channel, but some people think it is "conservative." Do they still have that hilarious Mancow (from Chicago) on sometimes in the morning?
Look, I don't think Hoot2 was trying to scam anyone. I heard it on Fox News, too and was elated. Now I'm crushed with the latest news of rejection by the judge.
Maybe I should have directed to Fox News... sorry then, just frustrated beyond belief!
I don't know. Work for a living and leave the house at 7. I never turn the TV on in the morning.
He has no conscience. But you are right about one thing: he is a "monster," and the people of FL seem to idolize this popular "Republican." Maybe they are hoping he won't come after them next.
Understood.
Since you state it so categorically, I have a serious question. I'd appreciate a serious answer. What is the difference between America today and Germany in WWII days, as citizens watched Jews being rounded up and sent to concentration camps to be legally tortured and killed? Thanks in advance for a serious answer.Well, for one, this is not an issue of persecution based on a race or religion. For another, if she'd had a living will stating otherwise this wouldn't be happening (I'm sure no Jew in Europe could have signed a document saying "I don't want to go to a camp" that would have prevented their slaughter). For another, she wasn't "rounded up." For another, these decisions are all based on testimony (whether true or not) that she did not wish to live in this condition. (I'm pretty sure no one claimed the Jews in WWII told them they wanted to die in a concentration camp).
Like I said, this is wrong and horrifying and sad, but hyperbole hardly furthers the cause.
God save the republic, or what's left of it.
I agree. My daughter just called to tell me she heard it on FOX and was disappointed when it wasn't true.
I think you just coined the new motto of the RNC! For poor Terri, she is tortured not for failure to leave a so-called "living will" that can be manipulated by "health care" officials for their purposes but for being "unequally yoked with a nonbeliever."
Of course, if that had happened, it may have been discovered that she COULD swallow and eat on her own, and I guess Michael didn't want that to happen.
Thank you for that confirmation.
Back to praying.
I think you just coined the new motto of the RNC! For poor Terri, she is tortured not for failure to leave a so-called "living will" that can be manipulated by "health care" officials for their purposes but for being "unequally yoked with a nonbeliever."There's impassioned activism and there's hysterical zealotry. Comparing this situation and this nation to German slaughter of 6 million people is the latter.
Jeb sending armed agents into the hospital to rescue her would be the former.
We're on the same side here.
Or Arafat being dead again... Or Castro kicking the can ;-)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151585,00.html
JUDGE ORDERS SCHIVO MURDERED
Schindlers: We Won't Appeal Again
Saturday, March 26, 2005
CLEARWATER, Fla. — A state judge on Saturday rejected another attempt by Terri Schiavo's parents to reconnect her feeding tube, rejecting what the couple's lawyer described as their last chance to keep their severely brain-damaged daughter alive.
Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer (search) denied the parents' motion to order the reinsertion of the tube. Bob and Mary Schindler claimed their daughter tried to say "I want to live" when her tube was removed on Greer's order March 18.
Her husband, Michael Schiavo (search), and his doctors have said that her utterances weren't speech and just involuntary moans. He argues that she has no hope of recovery, something disputed by her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.
The Schindlers are still holding out hope for an unlikely intervention by Gov. Jeb Bush (search), who has said he has done everything in his power to take custody of Schiavo.
As of Saturday afternoon, Schiavo had been without food or water for eight full days, and doctors have said she would probably die within a week or two of her feeding tube being pulled.
Her lawyers, however, have said Schiavo — whose dehydrated body has begun to shut down — may not survive the weekend.
Judge Greer is a tool.
Greer probably put out the false rumor this morning to show that he was "truly deciding." The man may be eating up all this national publicity now that he has won it all.
Greer 8
Bush 0
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