Second thoughts on Terri Schiavo

[DarkLadyRaven]

Originally posted by Predicto

Editorial from the heart of the maelstrom.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11196747.htm

"Pity James D. Whittemore, next in line for unholy defamation via e-mail, eternal damnation through the Internet and vilification by postcard. Not to mention death threats from those who claim insight into God's own hit list.

U.S. District Judge Whittemore of Tampa has been assigned a dilemma: Find a remedy in a case in which the rational application of state law, legal precedent, medical testimony and seven painful years of litigation in Florida courts have been tossed aside in a political and religious whirlwind.

Just Monday, my e-mail basket included a barrage of attacks on Florida Circuit Judge George Greer, known on the wild-eyed fringe as ''the killer judge,'' including yet another impeachment petition for the judge who presided over the long slog of the Schiavo case through state court.

Another e-mail noted that Greer had stopped attending the Southern Baptist Church in which he had been a longtime member. The note added a contradictory assumption. ``Judge Greer was so proud of his insane ruling, he is guilty of MIS-CARRIAGE OF JUSTICE. HIS GUILT troubled him and [he] resigned from his church.''

PAWN OF THE DEVIL

The former Pinellas County commissioner elected to the Sixth Circuit Court in 1992, a conservative Baptist, has been assailed as the judicial Judas by the religious fringies who have seized the Schiavo case. No matter that his rulings have been upheld through the appeals process. Or that the medical testimony of a dozen doctors in the case has consistently held that Terri Schiavo, with her cerebral cortex destroyed, is without consciousness, without emotion, without knowing and without hope of recovery.

So Greer became the killer judge. And politicians, first in the state Legislature and the governor's mansion, and now in Congress, have tossed aside his legal and medical reasoning as if the judge, after seven years, had merely invented a legal excuse to kill a helpless woman.

The judge has two deputies in tow wherever he goes in public, assigned to keep God's self-appointed messengers from killing him.

Judge Greer will now cede such fringe benefits to Judge Whittemore, who had the case dumped on his head Monday when Congress decided to federalize the issue. Judge Whittemore, when medical reasoning and legal decisions inevitably clash with religious theology, will also get the crazies as a bonus.

Being a judge must suck big time.

It seems like a magnet of ways to get killed in that line of work lately.

If we had a civil law system instead of a common law one- people would be less inclined to be pissed. And it would prevent activist judges from streching the law for political opin.

[Guest Gichin13]

Originally posted by DarkLadyRaven

Being a judge must suck big time.

It seems like a magnet of ways to get killed in that line of work lately.

If we had a civil law system instead of a common law one- people would be less inclined to be pissed. And it would prevent activist judges from streching the law for political opin.

Not tracking on this comment. What is a civil law system and how does it differ from common law?

[DarkLadyRaven]

Originally posted by Gichin13

Not tracking on this comment. What is a civil law system and how does it differ from common law?

A civil law system would be one where all the rules are written down by the legislature.

Example : instead of Roe vs Wade - that set a precedent. One would have a law worded: woman shall not have an arbortion after the 1st trimester of her predency without being a case of rape or incest.

The courts would only serve as a fact finder and would not be able to reverse laws made by the legislature.

A common law system which we have- allows for more lee way in sentencing, and interperatation of the law.

Generally considered better becuase it ties up the legilslature less.

In civil law- you have to sit around thinking of ways to break the law before they happen otherwise a multimass murderer who came up with a sadistic way to kill might go free.

In civil law- if you committed a henious tort but the legislaute had a law agianst that specific tort- then you are free to go.

The Major country that still has civil law is France

[Guest Gichin13]

That seems to be a very limited system of jurisprudence ... and one that effectively eliminates checks and balances. I will take our system with its warts.