Free Republic

More than two years after enraging right-wing groups by ordering Terry Schiavo's feeding tube removed, George Greer still peers over his shoulder nervously at times. In fact, the Florida judge told a rapt audience Friday at the American Bar Association's annual meeting, he even used an alias when he registered at his San Francisco hotel on this trip. Two years ago, he said, someone in the Bay Area threatened to kill him over his decision to end life support for the brain-damaged Schiavo. And even though that person was prosecuted and jailed, Greer said, he's taking no chances. "It is...

Among the celebrities journeying to Connecticut to support Ned Lamont's campaign to unseat Sen. Joseph Lieberman (now running as an independent, having lost the Democratic primary to Lamont) is Michael Schiavo, known around the world as the husband who finally succeeded in having the feeding tube removed from his late wife, Terri Schiavo. Schiavo pointedly reminded Connecticut voters that Sen. Lieberman has supported the president and Congressional Republicans in passing emergency legislation involving federal courts in an attempt to save Terri Schiavo's life while he, Michael Schiavo, was respecting her wishes — which she could no longer communicate — to...

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) - Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer has been called a murderer and equated with the Roman governor who condemned Jesus to death. He has been vilified in Internet chat rooms and has received death threats by e-mail. Greer is the judge who granted Terri Schiavo's husband permission to remove her feeding tube in one of the longest and most contentious right-to-life battles. His decision was second-guessed and essentially overridden by the Florida Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush last week. Following judicial code of conduct, Greer has been silent about the public debate over the Schiavo case...

And Greer, vilified by many religious protesters, is a church regular. He also is a conservative Republican in a state whose conservative Republican governor tried to overturn one of Greer's orders. "George is the religious right," said lawyer David Kurland, a longtime friend. Friends say Greer's intellect is perfectly formed to withstand the very tempest he now faces. Always calm, not prone to mood swings or flares of temper, unerringly polite, he is not easily ruffled, they say. But the criticisms sting, friends say. His relationship with his church, for example, has changed. "He's been through a lot of storms...

Talking about impeachment of judges and judicial independence.

A self verifying man sits astride the world, surveys all he can see, and pronounces it good. This is a terrifying thing because the man doing it is none other than Judge George Greer of Florida and the thing he was pronouncing good was the excruciatingly legal murder of one Terri Schindler, formerly Terri Schiavo. We have to grasp this. A tin-pot, swamp water embarrassment from the brackish backwater of former jurisprudence pronounced to both houses of the Congress of the United States of America that their subpoenas weren't worth a damned thing and that he, the new godhead, had...

Clearwater, FL (LifeNews.com) -- The national legal organization that helped Terri Schiavo's estranged husband win the right to euthanize her is awarding the local judge who made it possible. Circuit Judge George Greer is slated to receive an award from the Pinellas County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. At an upcoming dinner, Judge Greer, who authorized Michael Schiavo to end Terri's life over the objections of her parents and family, will receive the Gardner W. Beckett Jr. Civil Liberties Award. Greer will be honored Thursday at the Feather Sound Country Club.Judge Greer came under intense scrutiny in the...

While not specifically calling it "revenge," Michael Schiavo has fired a shot over the bow at the "Bible-thumping politicians" whom he claims used his wife, Terri Schiavo, as a political football last spring. Schiavo has announced the formation of a political action committee, called Terri PAC, in hopes of raising funds to defeat the politicians who tried to intervene in the seven-year court battle over the life of the 41-year-old brain-injured woman.

Please help Floridians restore Florida from the Starvation State back to the Sunshine State. How can anyone visit Florida and enjoy their experience knowing what happened here? Let's disband Judge Greer's elite corps from Pinellas County who participated in onerous, double dealing, immoral and illegal activities. GREER'S ELITE CORPS: Former Sheriff Everett Rice vies for Fla AG GREER'S ELITE CORPS: Current AG Charlie Crist vies for Fla Governor Thanks in advance for helping Floridians save our State!

The end of the June 15 autopsy report on Terri Schiavo states that it is the policy of the medical examiner's officer "that no case is ever closed and that all determinations are to be reconsidered upon receipt of credible, new information." Whatever new information, if any, comes to light, the facts of who she was and how she died will inevitably change the way many of us confront our own deaths. Pat Anderson, for a long time the attorney for Terri Schiavo's parents, said the day Terri died of dehydration — as ordered by the courts and her husband...

In a stunning profile of George Felos -- the attorney who helped Michael Schiavo put his wife Terri to death -- an author and famed theologian shows the weird side of the crusading right-to-die lawyer. This is certainly a story the mainstream media ignored. Writing in Crisis magazine, Benjamin Wiker, co-author of "Architects of the Culture of Death" and a senior fellow at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, uses Felos' own words to expose his oddball views. Wiker is no friend of Felos' views. He writes of Terri's Shiavo's death: "Cold blooded murder," sanctioned by the state of...

Honorable Mr. Bense: I know that you keep a busy schedule and with utmost respect of your time, I would like to ask for your intervention on an issue that is not only pressing, but also critical for the welfare of all Americans. As we know, laws applied in one case or state, whether right or not, ultimately, create a legalistic legacy that affect the rest of the country. Therefore, our country stands in the middle of a crisis of unbridled proportion. For the first time in our history, an entire, failed judicial system, is responsible for the murder of...

(CNSNews.com) - The Florida judge who ordered Terri Schiavo's feeding tube removed three times before she eventually died was being honored Thursday night by the West Pasco Bar Association in New Port Richey for his "professionalism and integrity," according to a member of the group. Pinellas-Pasco, County Circuit Court Judge George Greer was at the center of the Schiavo controversy up until the moment of the 41-year-old Florida woman's court-ordered death. He angered disability rights advocates with the final ruling to remove Terri's feeding tube, because, unlike previous orders, that one also prohibited anyone from offering Terri nutrition or hydration...

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. -- Protesters greeted the circuit judge who presided over the Terri Schiavo case as he arrived at a bar association ceremony where he was honored with a standing ovation. Judge George Greer on Thursday night told members of the West Pasco Bar Association that he will treasure the group's Special Justice Award recognizing his 13 years on the bench. Outside, about 15 people carried signs criticizing Greer for issuing the court order to withdraw a feeding tube from the 41-year-old brain-damaged woman. Schiavo died 13 days later, ending a bitter seven-year legal fight between her husband...

The Florida judge who presided over the politically and emotionally charged Terri Schiavo case received a special award from a local legal association on Thursday, prompting more controversy. Judge George Greer received the West Pasco Bar Association's Special Justice Award for his integrity and professionalism, according to the attorney in charge of the event, Alan Miller. He said the award was intended to honor Greer for his entire career, not just the Schiavo case. "I liken this to a lifetime achievement award for an actor," Miller said. "He's an excellent judge. He followed the law." Greer ordered Schiavo's feeding tube...

Well, again, Judge Greer is to receive yet another award. This time, for his "professionalism and intergrity" specifically in the way he handled the Schiavo case. The "Special Justice Award" given by the West Pasco Bar Association will be bestowed upon him this Thusday night (May 5, 2005) beginning at 6 p.m. at the: Heritage Springs Golf and Country Club 11345 Robert Trent Jones Parkway New Port Richey, FL After we all throw up our hands and say, "You've got to be kidding" let's please do our best to make this occasion a memorable one for Judge Greer. All who...

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...

BAR PRESIDENT DENOUNCES ATTACKS ON JUDICIARY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 24, 2005 CONTACT: Francine Walker, The Florida Bar TELEPHONE: 850/561-5666 STATEMENT OF KELLY OVERSTREET JOHNSON, PRESIDENT OF THE FLORIDA BAR TALLAHASSEE -- The tragic and high visibility case of Terri Schiavo has resulted in an unprecedented and unjustified attack upon our judiciary. Regardless of anyone’s personal or political feelings about the Schiavo case, this is a critical time for Americans to recognize the vital role of the judiciary in maintaining the rule of law and the importance of the separation of powers among the three branches of government. It is...

The Terri Schiavo case so outraged House Republican leader Tom DeLay that he has all but declared war on the judiciary. Heaven knows judicial arrogance needs discussion, but a politician under siege for alleged ethics violations who is upset over a single outcome that two-thirds of the country agrees with is not the person to get discussion going. After federal courts refused to act in the Schiavo case despite the new jurisdiction that Delay helped create, DeLay said the courts had ``run amok'' in abortion and school prayer cases. Congress, he said, ``must make sure the judges administer their responsibilities.''...

First, let us understand what the Terri Schiavo matter was not about: Despite ideological diatribes from David Corn at The Nation, this was not "an ugly big-government attempt to intervene in a family conflict" designed to appease "religious right crusaders." Despite ranting from Robert Scheer, also at The Nation, this was not "egregious political opportunism and shameless trafficking in human misery," and the citation of dubious polls won't validate Scheer's hope that the majority of Americans want to see a helpless woman starved to death by judicial order. And despite hysteria from the Los Angeles Times, this was not "a...

Wake up America . . . the alarm clock just went off and we keep turning over and going back to sleep. There's an "uprisin' on the horizon" and we refuse to face it. Sleeping through it might make it easier, but the end result will be devastating. We've had a lightning bolt cut through the very core of our foundation forming a crack so deep we could topple by our weight of indifference. This ship is listing badly; so tilted we may never be uprighted again. Our love affair with America is "breaking apart" because our foundation is cracking....

For decades, neuroscientists have recognized that the brain has three distinct systems. One is derived from primitive reptiles that were adept at survival strategies. Another includes the limbic system – often called the “seat of emotions.” The third includes the neocortex and prefrontal lobes (comprising the right and left hemispheres of the brain) that account for thinking, verbal abilities and other “higher” functions. My theory is that Terri’s putative husband Michael, his attorney George J. Felos, and Judge George Greer – who ruled for years against Terri’s right to life – have highly developed reptilian brains and prefrontal lobes, but...

A momentous article, "Medical Science Under Dictatorship," by Dr. Leo Alexander, the Chief U.S. Medical Consultant at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, first printed in the July 14, 1949 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, has been reprinted as a monograph, and it could not have been reprinted at a more opportune moment. Today, the concept of managed care, cost containment, and rationing threatens to eradicate the ethics of Hippocrates in medical practice, with the physician less beholden to his individual patient than to the managed care entity which employs him or pays his salary. In fact, many...

I WILL RESTORE YOUR JUDGES AS IN DAYS OF OLD, YOUR COUNSELORS AS AT THE BEGINNING. AFTERWARD, YOU WILL BE CALLED THE CITY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, THE FAITHFUL CITY." ISAIAH 1:26 As the nation now knows, Terri Schiavo slipped out of this life and into eternity on Thursday, March 31st. 1 This pitiful 41-year-old mentally disabled woman was condemned to death by an immoral Florida court judge named George Greer, who never came to visit her, yet ordered that she be dehydrated and starved to death at the insistence of her "husband," Michael. Mr. Schiavo lives with another woman with whom...

Judge George Greer, the Florida county jurist at the center of the Terri Schiavo case, ruled against a woman who was fighting to keep her husband alive in 2000. While Greer has ruled consistently with husband Michael Schiavo, who seeks to terminate his wife's life by depriving of her of food and water, the parallel case suggests the judge may have a predisposition to removal of any life-support devices rather than an inclination toward the legal guardian. The 2000 case heard by Greer involved the life of St. Petersburg lawyer Blair Clark, a University of South Florida professor. After suffering...

To: Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 4:01 PM Subject: NewStarvingCaseinGeorgia.PressRelease.Mullinax(205)408-7598 Media Release For Immediate release! To: All media, and supporters of life. From: The Family of Mae Magouirk Date: April 6, 2005 Contact: Kenneth Mullinax Shiavo case revisited in Georgia Mae Magouirk…not comatose …not vegetative …not terminal Why is Hospice LaGrange, Ga. withholding nourishment? (LaGrange, Georgia) Mae Magouirk is being withheld nourishment and fluids and the provisions of her Living Will are not being honored at the Hospice-LaGrange, (1510 Vernon Street, LaGrange “Troup County” Georgia, 706-845-3905) a subsidiary of the LaGrange Hospital in LaGrange Georgia. Her family is desperately seeking...

Terri Schiavo Judges Won't be Targeted, Senate Leader Frist Says by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told reporters on Tuesday that he's not interested in having the Senate go after judges who violated a federal law Congress passed mandating that Terri Schiavo's starvation death be stopped and allowing her parents to take their lawsuit to federal courts. "I believe we have a fair and independent judiciary today," he said, according to a Reuters report. Frist admitted the federal review of the case "was not as complete as we would like," but he...

Various creepy people on the Left have been torturing the English language lately to make their Death Culture more palatable to the general public, most of whom prefer to life. First with the Schiavo case, now with the Pope: they market death as if it were another lifestyle option. Selfish twerps, the public. Don't they know it's very expensive for them to go on living? Don't they know that seasides, wetlands, and highlands are much more scenic if you take away the people? Social Security would be just fine, if only the public would stop living. The Left's worst abuse...

How Physician Assisted Suicide Could Affect People With Disabilities by a quadriplegic As a quadriplegic who has been paralyzed from the chest down for over 24 years, I want to address the dangerous potential ramifications of legalizing physician assisted suicide (PAS) from a viewpoint of personal experience. I will divide them in to two distinct categories: past and present. The past danger I am referring to concerns the time when I was first paralyzed. My paralysis is the result of a broken neck and spinal cord injury from a car accident in 1975. I was 21 years old, at that...

THE EMPEROR'S NEW ROBES March 30, 2005 On the bright side, after two weeks of TV coverage of the Terri Schiavo case, I think we have almost all liberals in America on record saying we can pull the plug on them. Of course, if my only means of entertainment were Air America radio, Barbra Streisand albums and reruns of "The West Wing," I too would be asking: "What kind of quality of life is this?" There are a few glaring exceptions. On the anti-killing side, to one extent or another, are: former Clinton lawyer Lanny Davis, former Gore lawyer David...

Schiavo: Awakening a sleeping giant Posted: April 1, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern By David Limbaugh © 2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc. It is just possible, contrary to my original thoughts, that the tragic Schiavo case will not usher in a slippery slope toward euthanasia, but cause a double-barreled backlash against both the "Culture of Death" and judicial activism. To be sure, the legal precedent established in this case, at least in Florida, represents an affirmative devaluation of human life and opens the door to further troubling scenarios, involving the state-sanctioned murder of the inconvenient, based on "quality of life" assessments. But...

Many of the regular readers of Col Pappas articles have been asking why they had not seen any new articles from him over the past month or so. Well we are happy to inform you that he is not dead or incapacitated. Col Pappas has been on a vacation in Europe and has come back with a foot locker full of ideas and articles. Here is the first one..... If the Associated Press Opinion Survey is correct, Americans care little about the matter and most are willing to see Terri die. As far as the adulterous (a violation of Florida...

Normally I add a paragraph of two of explanation of my subject matter for the benefit of any readers that may not be familiar with the subject that I am addressing. In this case, if you have not heard of the Terri Schiavo case, I suggest you quit now and read something else. Maybe no other case in recent history, including the O. J. Simpson and Scott Peterson cases, has generated as much controversy as the Terri Schiavo case. I can’t begin to count how many articles and opinions and I’ve read and heard in the past couple of weeks....

Normally I add a paragraph of two of explanation of my subject matter for the benefit of any readers that may not be familiar with the subject that I am addressing. In this case, if you have not heard of the Terri Schiavo case, I suggest you quit now and read something else. Maybe no other case in recent history, including the O. J. Simpson and Scott Peterson cases, has generated as much controversy as the Terri Schiavo case. I can't begin to count how many articles and opinions and I've read and heard in the past couple of weeks....

By the time you read this, Terri Schiavo may well be dead. At the time I’m writing this, even most of us who wanted her to live will be relieved that her pain and suffering will be over. The other good thing about her final release will be that we will no longer have to listen to the so-called experts insist that starvation and dehydration not only aren’t painful in the extreme, but actually bring on a state of bliss, almost rapture. These are the same people, I’m willing to wager, who’d throw a hissy fit if you deprived them...

When Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore refused a federal court order to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from that state’s Supreme Court building, he became the central figure in a firestorm of criticism from the left. But his liberal critics weren’t alone. Conservatives also chided Moore, contending that his defiance of the order undermined the “rule of law” in America. Throughout history, the law has served several functions. In a free and morally upright society, it provides a framework within which the people can safely live their lives and pursue their dreams. In a dictatorship, however, it devolves...

With all of the media venues finally calling attention to Terri Schindler Schiavo and her fight to stay alive - I could not help but reflect on all of the articles, affadavits, and medical reports I have read. It is very important to review everything in sequence and cumulatively, so that a proper picture can be painted. Something, by the way, the Honorable Judge Greer has refused to do - you would think after all these years, he would at least need to refresh his memory before condeming a woman to death. But...Nonetheless... My reflections have led me to a...

This Good Friday, we commemorate two ritual murders: Jesus of Nazareth and Theresa Schiavo. snip Where are the people who lobby against domestic violence or, as it used to be called, wife-beating? Like the other feminists, they are uncharacteristically silent. They have apparently had a mass change of heart, and now endorse the indissolubility of marriage and the patriarchal authority of husbands, overthrowing 200 years of feminist rhetoric going back to Mary Wollstonecraft — who described women as the "convenient slaves" of their husbands. Mrs. Schiavo's problem appears to be that she is an inconvenient slave. But she doesn't even...

– 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...