Posted on 05/02/2005 5:06:09 AM PDT by Quaker
NEW PORT RICHEY - Pinellas- Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer, who was thrust into the national spotlight and scrutinized by pro-life advocates during the Terri Schiavo case, was a consistent judge who followed the law, colleagues say.
His professionalism and integrity was punctuated by the way he handled the Schiavo case, said Alan Scott Miller, a New Port Richey lawyer and member of the West Pasco Bar Association.
As part of Law Week, which kicks off today, the association will award Greer, 63, its Special Justice Award.
``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.''
Greer will receive the award during a banquet Thursday at the Heritage Springs Golf and Country Club, 11345 Robert Trent Jones Parkway.
For years, Greer presided over the politically and emotionally charged Schiavo case, which ended when the 41- year-old woman died March 31, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed a third time on a court order.
Some doctors said Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state since suffering brain damage after her heart stopped in 1990.
Her husband, Michael, fought for years to have her feeding stopped, saying his wife didn't want to be kept alive by artificial means.
Her parents, hoping she would recover, fought him in court after court.
Eventually, Florida's governor and Legislature and then Congress took up the battle.
Supporters and detractors watched as Greer made rulings backing Terri Schiavo's purported wishes and received threats on his life.
``I don't think anyone could ever say his decisions were unlawful,'' said Joan Nelson Hook, president of the West Pasco Bar Association. ``They were very thoughtful. His decisions were meticulous.
``We admired his ability to sustain the pressure not to follow the law. ... I think that shows his character.''
Steve Doran, association president-elect, echoed Hook's thoughts on Greer's handling of the Schiavo case.
``His decisions in that unfortunate case withstood the test of every appellate court in the country,'' Doran said. ``Those who are criticizing him are not seeing the big picture.''
When the association voted this month on this year's recipient of the Special Justice Award, the result was almost unanimous for Greer.
``He's a man of integrity. He's followed the flow. He's done an excellent job on the bench,'' said Miller. ``That's why he's getting this award.''
In addition to Greer's award, the Law Week celebration offers events that allow the community to get a closer look at what the West Pasco Bar Association and the law profession are about, Hook said.
``It's an opportunity to interact with all levels of the community,'' she said.
``It's not just about battles; law is a way of life.''
Here are some events:
* Representatives of the association will be at Gulf View Square mall in Port Richey offering free legal advice from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Friday.
* All week, 22 lawyers will visit Pasco schools to discuss the law and this week's national theme, ``The American Jury: We the People in Action.''
* The 2nd District Court of Appeal will hold a special session at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the West Pasco Government Center, 7530 Little Road, in county commission chambers.
* Business suits, shoes and accessories will be collected at area law offices for Connections, a not-for-profit organization that helps people looking for jobs.
The following law offices are collecting men's and women's apparel:
The Law Offices of Attridge, Cohen & Lucas, 7136 Little Road, New Port Richey; The O'Conner Law Group, 9735 U.S. 19, Suite 2, Port Richey; Pejot Law, 11911 Pine Forest Drive, New Port Richey; and The Law Offices of Gay & Ehrhardt, 5318 Balsam St., New Port Richey.
Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083.
And so we end up with the result we had, an innocent person put to death by judicial order, while the other supposedly co-equal branches of government stand by and impotently watch and tremble in fear of the judicial tyrant.
Most disappointing and discouraging are the people, including many on FR, who cheer the result of an innocent woman put to death as a victory for "the law", and applaud that Judge (executioner) who "did his job and followed the law". Well, some law that is, when you end up killing an innocent person. I remember a time in this country when the law stood for something other than killing innocent citizens of the land, a time when the law and the courts protected people and served them instead of killing them. This New Age crap and the culture of death have taken such a hold that people now cheer on the slaughter of persons never convicted or even accused of a crime, much less a capital offense.
Judge Greer will never be able to live this down no matter how they try to build him into a hero. He's no hero. He's not even an average guy. He's a liberal, evil politician claiming to be a member of the religious right. He's delusional.
Greer, until recently, was a member of the Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, Fla. He left at the urging of Pastor William Rice, who counseled him wisely: "You must know that in all likelihood it is this case which will define your career and this case that you will remember in the waning days of life. I hope you can find a way to side with the angels and become an answer to the prayers of thousands."
Rice has my highest regard for that decision. Too many pastors in this country don't require obedience to God as a prerequisite for church membership. They seem to believe in a kind of "cheap" grace that comes with regular attendance or tithing rather than a Christian walk. They seem to have no minimal standards for fellowship and communion with the saints.
There are few heroes in the Terri Schiavo scandal. Her parents and siblings qualify. Terri herself qualifies. Those who braved arrest to bring her cups of water qualify. And, in my book, so does Rev. William Rice.
Do you want to know why the church doesn't have influence and impact in our increasingly secular world today?
Because there are too many so-called Christians like Judge George Greer and not enough like Pastor William Rice.
Greer's friends have attacked the church and defended the judge, saying he was interpreting the law to the best of his ability. However, if that is true, then Greer, as a Christian, had a duty to obey God's laws rather than man's laws. That would require him to leave the bench if he truly saw a conflict. Instead, Greer opted to leave his church – and, presumably, his weak faith.
"Like evangelicals across the world, we are horrified at the thought that a handicapped woman could be, in effect, starved to death before a watching world," Rice wrote. Admitting he was not a legal or medical expert, Rice asserted: "I know right from wrong. I know what God thinks about human life. I know there is only one way to describe the prospect of starving a woman to death because she cannot feed herself. It is wrong."
Rice continued: "Morality and truth must serve as our guide. Terri Schiavo is not on life support. She is not dying. Good evidence exists to suggest that she is responsive. All she receives is food and water, the same as you and me. Are we to conclude that she is less than human because she cannot feed herself? Can a month-old child feed himself? Is an elderly patient stricken with some debilitating disease and unable to feed herself suddenly less human? Do we now use an IQ test to determine if someone possesses the right to live? Isn't that God's choice? Only God can give life, and only He should take it away."
"Tread carefully if you think this is simply about a dying woman being allowed to die peacefully," Rice wrote. "Remember when we were told that Roe v. Wade was simply about helping women who had been raped or whose lives were imminently threatened? Today, few abortions fall into that category, but millions of human lives have been sacrificed upon the altar of selfishness. And the slide down the slippery slope continues."
In case Greer was still confused, his pastor gave him more to think about.
"This case seems complex, but it is as simple as four words: 'Thou shalt not kill.' If you need a compass for this complex case, you'll find it there," he wrote. "As we all know, the Sixth Commandment means it is wrong to murder – to take the life of an innocent person without just cause. If I were the nurse in that hospice center and the directive were given to me to discontinue feeding a living human being and watch as he or she starved to death, I couldn't do it. I'd rather get fired, resign or do something else."
Christians can go on blaming others for the problems we face in this country. Or we can go into the churches and start cleaning up the messes we have in our own houses of worship. It's time to take back the churches. It's time to renew the idea of standards. It's time to make church membership mean something again.
Judge George Greer did the wrong thing. Pastor William Rice did the right thing. If we had more pastors like Rice, we'd have fewer judges like Greer.
March 31, 2005 WND
No barf alert either. Though I do feel the urge...
That was a great article! Christians have a greater responsibility and role in society than many of them are willing to live up to imo.
There are many like Pastor Rice but we need many more!!
I couldn't help 'noticing' that during the runaway bride fiasco their pastor gave glowing reports of both the guy and the gal. Well what happened to waiting til you're married to move in together?
Judge Greer ordered for the third time, that Terri be starved and dehydrated until dead. Two weeks with no nutrition and no water. SOUND LIKE TORTURE TO YOU? It sure was!
She was killed in cold blood after years of being caged and being denied rehabilitation, including speech therapy. Wake up Amerika!
I just received this re Greer's award...there is a protest planned.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Unfortunately, according to the newspaper article I've attached to the bottom of the page, he is being honored with a very distinctive award, on Thursday night (May 5, 2005) mainly for the way he handled the Terri Schiavo case. On hearing this news, a small group of us in Tampa, Florida are organizing a protest outside of the Heritage Springs Golf and County Club in New Port Richey, FL. We are told that the ceremony will begin at 6:00 so we are recommending all Schiavo supporters to arrive around 5 with signs. All Christian radio stations in the area are being contacted. We ask that you please support us in this cause. Please tell all of your people who are in favor of impeaching Judge Greer to be there. The address is listed below, as well as the newspaper article.
Thank you very much.
Heritage Springs Golf and Country Club
11345 Robert Trent Jones Parkway
New Port Richey, FL
http://pasco.tbo.com/pasco/MGBHNYJW78E.html
Great article. Apparently there are some that think as we do that killing is just wrong. And, if laws authorize that killing, then the laws must be changed by men who see where those laws will lead us.
We just have to hope there are enough men and women who will see the truth of what is happening and have the ability to correct it.
Bump.
What happened to Terri is not going to be forgotten as per Fla House Speaker Allan Bense's prediction.
RELATED TO TOMORROW NIGHT'S SPECIAL JUSTICE AWARD GOING TO GEORGE GREER
Fr. Pavone Repeats Description of Judge Greer as 'Murderer'
5/4/2005 9:23:00 AM
To: National and State Desks
Contact: Jerry Horn of Priests for Life, 540-785-4733
WASHINGTON, May 4 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, responded today to the announcement that Judge George Greer will receive the "Special Justice Award" tomorrow in Florida.
"On the night before Terri Schiavo died, I said to the national media that Judge Greer was a murderer. I repeat that today. 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. Terri was not dying until she stopped receiving food and water. 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.
"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.'"
Other religious leaders, including Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace at the Vatican, have described this tragedy in similar terms, as have countless Americans.
For more information, see http://www.priestsforlife.org
http://www.usnewswire.com/
ck my last post. Father Pavone came out swinging again. He's great.
Who Is Judge George (Boss) Greer? [The Terri Schiavo Case Isn't Over]
By Ken Hughes
Apr. 2, 2005
Boss Greer’s biography reads like a TV sitcom. [He’s the Judge who ordered Terri Schiavo’s murder.] He was born in Brooklyn N.Y. and taken to Florida at a very early age. Therefore, he qualifies as a southern redneck. He lives up to perceived redneck traditions in every respect.
George Greer attended Largo High School in Clearwater Fl., Jr. College in St. Petersburg, College at Florida State, Law School at the University of Florida, Gainesville Fl. There seems to be little information on his activities while in school. He certainly wasn’t an outstanding student. He returned to Clearwater Fl. to practice real-estate law.
Lawyers are attracted to politics as Hogs are to Truffles. Natural instinct brings them together. The Judgeship Boss Greer holds is an elective position. He wins elections by default, no one is willing to spend the money necessary to defeat him.
The execution of Terri Schiavo isn’t Boss Greer’s first such decision. Previously he failed to issue a restraining order for a woman who feared for her life. She positioned the court for help in protecting her from her estranged husband. A week after Judge Greer said she lacked evidence she was murdered by her husband. This decision prompted a study by Columbia Law School determining Judge Greer had an 89% error rate in death sentences. It was Terri Schiavo’s misfortune to end up in the court of the most incompetent Judge in Florida.
Judge [Boss] Greer’s Court decisions will be studied in law classes everywhere as closely as those of Judge Roy Bean’s are studied. We can only hope the Florida judicial system will be as interested. People who don’t know the law should never elect Judges. A process applying the law should be used to appoint Judges. Judges should be limited to one ten year term.
The execution of Terri Schiavo will serve to bring attention to incompetent Judges. Hopefully it brings about changes in the judicial system to curb such incompetent behavior in the future.
Terri Schiavo and all the other Terri Schiavo’s deserve to be allowed due process, she and they should be given ever opportunity the law allows, if the law doesn’t allow it change the law. Life should be dominant over laws. This is a clear case of judges protecting judges. This judge, Boss Greer wasn’t following the law he was making laws from the bench. His rulings are a clear violation of his authority.
This case isn’t over, it’s over for Terri. It will go on until there are laws forcing judges to follow the law.
Email: ken-hughes@comcast.net
Pinellas County has the highest error rate for death sentences in the United States. That means, all Pinellas County Judges. The error rate for sentencing innocent people to death in Pinellas is 89%.
Regarding Judge Greer he is reversed 2/3 of the time on appeal (except if it was about Terri. Then the appeals court backed him up almost every single time).
"Regarding Judge Greer he is reversed 2/3 of the time on appeal"
Is this the reason Greer was moved to Probate Court?
Why do you think I would say I am opposed to abortion, if I was not opposed to abortion?
Why do you claim to be in favor of the sanctity of life, and then want to artifically alter it, in the manner you seem to be demanding--forcing someone who in the natural order would die in peace, to be kept alive against their will, by means very different than those provided by the Creator.
Make no mistake, as I point out at several places in the essay (Terry Schiavo: An End To Rational Analysis?), people have a right to expend their resources to keep their bodies artificially alive, even when cognitive functions have ceased. I believe in that Freedom. But why would anyone who claims to believe in the Sanctity of Life, want to make a cause out of forcing people to decide on such a course?
You totally ignore the reality; that spending resources on keeping people alive against their will, deprives the younger members of a family, from the unborn babes on, of the use of those same resources. The culture of the "Living Death," that you seem to want to force on others, is most certainly not a culture of Life. Through all the ages of man, death has been a part of the life cycle. It is not a denial or trivialization of the importance of life, to understand the characteristics of life--one of which is the fact that at a certain point, death naturally ensues.
The fanaticism of the Schiavo protesters undermines the chances of curbing abortion, because it frankly terrifies a large part of the living population, who see in the Terry Schiavo case a true nightmare--not the one you imagine. Very, very few of us would ever want to be kept alive for 15 years in the condition of poor Terry. But you do not see that, and imagine it a sound issue on which to take the ideological field. You simply do not see the forest for the trees.
William Flax
You spell her name wrong and you already have been apprised therefore we already know that you care about her. Why would anyone want to listen to you?
You appear to make broad general statements re: Terri's condition that are untrue therefore you speak in generalities and are willing to base life and death decisions of people with disabilities or who "appear" to be in a certain condition due to your limited knowledge of their "true" condition. Therefore why would anyone want to listen to you?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1395091/posts?page=656#656
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1395091/posts?page=656#656
I rest my case.
You believe that "some" can/should judge others and see that they are not around to "waste resources".
And, again, I do not believe you are anti-abortion because, of course, why should a mother bear a child she does not wish so that that child will be a burden and "waste resources".
And, I do not intend to go wade through your "analysis" no matter how many times you mention it. Your views are clear.
Now - just WHO is supposed to be the judge of "aliveness" for each of us, including you?
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