I have not read Fuhrman's book, so perhaps you can enlighten me. Is it really "by all accounts" or is it just from looking at the testimony of Mr. Schiavo, who woke in the middle of the night to find his wife in bad shape? I know I can rarely remember what time I wake in the middle of the night!
And doesn't the medical evidence say that if Mrs. Schiavo had actually lain there for those 40 minutes, she'd have been fully dead? It's tough to be in cardiac arrest for 40 minutes and survive, so it seems like Mr. Schiavo just estimated times and got some wrong.
I'm no fan of his, and perhaps he's guilty, but I don't think the timing is the problem. Even the body position questions are not that compelling.
Yes. Fuhrman looks at the accounts of all persons involved from the time of Terri's collapse to her arrival at the hospital. All the accounts, with the exception of Michael's, generally corroborate each other, ranging from Terri's parents (who Michael called, after which the parents called her brother who lived in the same apartment complex), her brother, the documentation generated by the emergency responders, police and the ER. Moreover, their accounts have not wavered over the years whereas Michael's has in the type of details one would be expected to remember upon finding a significant other or loved one in such a state...If you've ever lost a parent, sibling, spouse, unexpectedly, you may not remember the exact time, but you would most likely remember what you were doing when you were notified, and what you did immediately afterward.
Fuhrman makes the allowance that nobody looks at their watch and records the precise time one wakes up, but Michael provides different times with certitude during his accounts over the years rather than indicating that he was uncertain, or may have made a mistake in previous testimony.
In some accounts he indicates he woke up "for some reason," then heard a "thud," and at other times, he states he was woken by the "thud." His accounts vary by a matter of several hours as to what time he arrived home the evening / morning before the incident (he was working late at a restaurant), whether or not he interacted with Terri prior to going to sleep, who he called, in what order and when after he found her.
Michael was never called on the discrepancies, and during the later stages of the court proceedings, when a Schindler family attorney did subpoena him (four times, IIRC) he ignored all the subpoenas, and was never deposed with regards to the discrepancies. Greer stated something to the effect that, "While it may be interesting to determine why," she ended up in her state of diminished capacity, he indicated that it bore no bearing on the current status of her case.
Yes, had Terri lain there for 40 minutes she most likely would have not survived that morning. When her brother came to the apartment, she was gurgling and breathing abnormally. Fuhrman does not find him guilty of anything, and lays out several scenarios ranging from happenstance to horseplay (Michael did have a history of roughhousing with Terri, her sister and brothers) to deliberate criminality...all of which fit the known testimonial evidence. His conclusion is ultimately, there are a limited number of questions that need to be answered, and only Michael knows the truth.