Posted on 03/26/2005 5:31:22 AM PST by amdgmary
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - After a federal appeals court panel rebuffed them yet again, Terri Schiavo's parents made another desperate attempt to keep their brain-damaged daughter alive, telling a judge that she tried to say "I want to live" just minutes before her feeding tube was removed a week ago.
Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer was expected to announce a decision by noon Saturday on the motion by Bob and Mary Schindler claiming 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 March 18. 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, said Barbara Weller, the Schindlers' attorney.
"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, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, said the belief Terri Schiavo can speak was "crossing the line" into an abuse of the legal system.
Earlier Friday, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta denied another appeal by the Schindlers, saying it had already ruled on most of the issues and other issues raised did not apply to the case.
It marked the third time in four days the court had denied an emergency request made by Schiavo's parents. Attorneys for the Schindlers said they planned to appeal, but would wait until Saturday morning.
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 (news - web sites) said a man was arrested in Fairview, N.C., on charges of sending an e-mail threat, 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 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, federal prosecutors said.
I was shocked to see this being talked about on GMA (ABC). Perhaps now someone will demand an investigation into this execution.
Ping
Judgenfuhrer Greer: "Burn her.
The rest of you - shut up."
I am SO pissed off that this wasn't presented sooner...we knew about this here on FR the day it happened so why the delay by the Schindler's attorneys?
Judge Greer has made his decision and would not reverse if she got up and walked. He is all powerful, doncha know. Congess and the President are nothing to him.
The person claiming Terri tried to speak is *suprise* a lawyer working for the parents.
Seriously, have you seen the CT scan of Terri's skull? She has physically lost 80% of her brain tissue as it has been replaced by CSF. It is highly improbable that someone with that much damage could possibly talk.
If she can't swallow -- an action that requires 24 highly coordinated muscles movements in her throat and mouth -- how could she possiblity form words?
"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.
What I fault Jeb Bush for is allowing to go apparently unchallenged a blatently illegal and in your face order by Judge Greer that Terri cannot be given water or food by mouth as Terri's parents requested. That is euthanasia and is not permitted under Florida law. On this order at least the Shindler's have the law on their side -- giving water by mouth is not in any shape, fashion or form artificial life support as mentioned in the Florida statute. Any outcome of a trial of drinking, even death by choking, is preferable to what is going on now.
Why are the Shindlers and more importantly Governor Jeb Bush allowing this illegal order, which constitutes arbitrary rule by judicial fiat, to go unchallenged? All our elected officials are obligated by their oaths of office to do everything within their power to protect our constitutional rights and to prevent the usurpation of illegal and arbitrary authority by the judiciary. Without the willingness to do that we effectively live in a judicial thugocracy
The delay is because the attorneys (probably all attorneys in high profile appeals) withhold bits and pieces to use in case the current appeal fails, thus buying time.
In this case, however it is failing and time is not being purchased.
Additionally, since the sentence was not completed how do we know she wasn't saying she wants to end this and die?
I think that the parents and siblings and their attorney have used a strategy that the courts don't buy.
Actually, this is old news: we knew about it on the day when her feeding tube was removed. More than just the lawyer heard it--a roomfull of people heard it, including her aunt and uncle who were on GMA this morning.
When emotion runs high and we do exactly what we didn't like about the liberals, form opinions on emotion, the sky is the limit.
If she got up and walked and even talked that would be seen as automatic reflexes!
I wish the world could see her suffering!
Also, as has been noted before--she can swallow just fine. Doctors examining her have seen no drooling, so she is certainly swallowing her saliva. If she had been allowed to have therapy, she'd probably be speaking much better too.
I'll tell you what, if you enjoy death so much, why don't you just go join Al Qaeda or something, and maybe they'll let you watch the next beheading.
Hmmmmmmmm.......
Sounds like real,...alive,...human 'baby-talk' to me.....
...'AHHHHHH'=yes!
...'WAAAAAA'=water!....Wa-Wa!
...............................this is NOT Abortion,....it's murder!
IMHO
We did not present Terri's scream in court probably because we assumed that it would and will have no effect on murderous George W. Greer. There were just so many things to present that this got omitted, I would imagine. The popular Greer will certainly say that she did not "speak a complete sentence: so we don't know what she was trying to say."
If she had a living will would he still be Judgenfuhrer Greer?
It really doesn't matter what she was trying to say. The point is if she can speak AT ALL, then she is not PVS, and cannot legally have her feeding tube removed.
It can be quite surprising what the human brain is capable of. Who would think that children with half of their brains removed could actually do better than with their brains intact.
"Hemispherectomy shown on ABC show; Dr. Ben Carson says most young people who have half their brains surgically removed do great." http://www.neurosurgeon.org/publications/detail.asp?PressID=12
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