WorldNetDaily: Judge delays Terri Schiavo's starvation

Incredibly, that's Judge George Greer. Those Schindlers have a crack legal team, and no mistake. They filed yet another motion for a rehearing, and they must have had something new to offer to support their motion, because the judge granted it--this although he has given no hint of sympathy with the Schindlers.

I know why the case seems to whipsaw like this. Judge Greer, whatever else he is, is not a fool. He does not want his work reversed yet again on appeal. Something in that motion raised precisely that specter, and that's why the judge granted it.

The real flaw here is in a legal system that dares presume that fates worse than death exist--and that allows an estranged husband to continue as the "legal guardian" of his wife while he is making out with another woman and even siring children on her.

No less a figure than Randall Terry has now joined forces with the Schindlers' legal team. In the article in WorldNetDaily, he asks this:

Why is Michael determined to starve this woman? Why won't he just give Terri back to her parents?

Ah, come on, Mr. Terry, you know why! Maybe you can't say it out loud, but I can, as I have: because Michael Schiavo tried to kill Terri to begin with, and it has taken him fifteen years to finish the job. If I'm right, and if she could talk, he would be facing prison. And if she ever recovers her ability to talk...!

What else makes sense? Why wouldn't he simply get a divorce? The family have offered him that, and even offered him a sizeable remittance--all of which he has refused. And I'm not buying his excuse that she simply told him that she'd "never want to live like that." You'd think that some other witness would step forward, after fifteen years, to confirm his description of her prior attitude. None has.

All of which begs that the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office investigate Michael Schiavo on suspicion of murder.

But in all fairness, it also begs that the Schindlers' legal team and their allies hire a private investigator to investigate a probable murder for themselves. One might legitimately ask why the Schindlers have never done that. Three possibilities:

1. I'm wrong, there was no attempted murder, and the Schindlers know it.
2. The Schindlers despair of gathering anything remotely resembling sufficient evidence to charge Michael Schiavo with a crime--the trail is too cold.
3. The Schindlers did hire a private investigator, and he's still on the case, but is withholding his findings until he finds the smoking gun.

But if MIchael Schiavo is not guilty of initially putting his wife into her present state, then his behavior in refusing a divorce, and insisting that nothing short of her eventual death will serve, is still a monumental puzzle that only he can solve--and he's not talking. Well, I wouldn't expect him to talk, since after all, he has an attorney to talk for him. (No one, having retained a legal representative, ever talks to the public about the matter at hand out of his own mouth.) His choice of attorney pretty much says it all: George Felos wants to make new common law, in the form of legal precedent, that recognizes fates worse than death. (You missed your calling, Counselor--you ought to be the Minister of Justice, or however they call their equivalent of an Attorney General, in the Netherlands.) Still, even if he is merely taking advantage of a situation that "dropped into his lap," the Schindlers have offered him a settlement that would allow him every material advantage that he would gain from her death, and he has still refused. That can only mean that he is afraid that she will eventually learn to talk, and will then reveal something that will cause him some kind of criminal embarrassment. And that something might not even have to be that he tried to kill her--just something he has subsequently decided that he must make sure of her death in order to keep secret.

Mary Higgins Clark, call your agent!

UPDATE: The link above is actually to an article that appeared later in the day. A court spokesman initially made a mistake, saying that Judge Greer had already issued an emergency stay on Monday. He hadn't--because he knew that the Appeals Court was set to rule. He waited until that appeal ruling came down, and then he issued the stay, effective until 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, and he already has a hearing scheduled for 2:45 p.m. Wednesday.

George Felos is still maintaining that Terri herself said she didn't want to "be kept alive artificially"--again, with no evidence except Michael Schiavo's word. But again, this wouldn't be an issue if the law did not err on the side of "mercy killing." (And just how merciful is it to starve someone to death?) The law ought to say, "When in doubt, don't."

Well, Clint Eastwood, of Million Dollar Baby fame--are you satisfied?