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The preamble to Florida's Code of Judicial Conduct says that our legal system is based on the principle that an independent, fair and competent judiciary will interpret and apply the laws that govern us.
There's no exemption in there for Pinellas County's George W. Greer, the judge who signed Terri Schindler Schiavo's death warrant.
The role of the judiciary is central to American concepts of justice and the rule of law. Intrinsic to all sections of this Code are the precepts that judges, individually and collectively, must respect and honor the judicial office as a public trust and strive to enhance and maintain confidence in our legal system, the preamble says.
Pinellas' probate court judge Greer has done more, in our opinion, to erode the public confidence in the judiciary than any other judicial officer in the United States of America today.
He has made a mockery of the entire judicial system and he just keeps rubbing the public's nose in it, claiming he followed the rule of law, flaunting his arrogance, surfeited by himself. Does George Greer know the law or is just so callous he and all of his bar association affiliates believe he is above it?
Deference to the judgments and rulings of courts depends upon public confidence and the integrity and independence of judges…..Although judges should be independent, they must comply with the law, including the provisions of the judicial code. Public confidence in the impartiality of the judiciary is maintained by the adherence of each judge to this responsibility. Conversely, violation of this code diminishes public confidence in the judiciary and thereby does injury to the system of government under law.
And George Greer has certainly grossly diminished public confidence in this country's judiciary.
Canon 2 of Florida's Judicial Code says that "a judge shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all of the judge's activities. A judge shall respect and comply with the law and shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.
Incredibly, according to the program for the 10th anniversary symposium of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics in Philadelphia, PA, George W. Greer is scheduled to appear as a lead speaker for "The Legacy of the Terri Schiavo Case: Why Is It So Hard to Die In America?"
http://www.bioethics.upenn.edu/symposium/
He's scheduled on the program with Michael Schiavo who was allowed to commit judicial homicide as sanctioned and enabled by George Greer. Other scheduled speakers are Mary Labyak, CEO of the Hospice of Florida Suncoast where Terri was kept illegally for five years although not terminal, her admission facilitated by George Felos, Michael's attorney and chairman of the hospice board. Other speakers are professor Jay Wolfson of the University of Southern Florida, guardian ad litem in the Terri Schiavo case; Dr. Humane Death Ronald Cranford and bioethicist Arthur Caplan, chairman of the medical ethics department at the sponsoring university and recent donor to the political action committee organized by Democratic political consultant Derek Newton in the name of Michael Schiavo to attempt to punish politicians who tried to save Terri's life. Caplan vociferously supported the killing of Terri Schiavo.
Greer is going to be the lead speaker on the topic of "Who Should Decide: Courts/Legislators?" What a totally inappropriate choice by the university and wholly unethical.
George Greer can hardly be called impartial on this issue. Does George Greer know the meaning of the word ethics? We think it's more like George Greer has violated the law so many times on so many levels that he has no concept of the words ethics. Further more, he doesn't care because he believes that no one is audacious enough to challenge him and remove him and if they do, he'll claim they've abridged the separation of powers doctrine because he's autonomous-a despot in a black dress.
Greer has made a mockery out of the judicial system with his blatant disregard for the U.S. and state Constitutions and the Florida statutes----in particular the laws concerning guardianship in the Schiavo case.
He acted as judge, jury, attorney, guardian ad litem in the Schiavo case as well as witness for the plaintiff in the case, Michael Schiavo, the estranged husband and guardian who sought to have the court impose a verdict of death upon his wife by ordering the removal of her feeding tube. Now he's on the speaking circuit with Michael Schiavo to attempt to condone and support his issuance of Terri Schiavo's death warrant.
There's definitely something wrong ethically with this picture.
Schiavo claimed that Terri has told him nearly 20 years ago that she wouldn't want to be kept alive artificially. She was not on artificial life support---merely a gastric tube that provided her sustenance and hydration three times a day-meal times. She breathed on her own. She was not in a coma and as numerous neurologists and physicians attested, was not in a persistent vegetative state as Greer and Schiavo maintained. Even Pinellas County medical examiner Jon Thogmartin who conducted Terri Schiavo's autopsy maintained that it could not be ruled out that she was in a minimally conscious state as opposed to the PVS millstone hung on her by her guardian.
After the estranged husband, his brother, Scott and a sister-in-law, Joan who is married to another brother, testified at a January, 2000 trial under oath that they recalled vague conversations of Terri some 15 years prior that she would not want to be kept alive artificially, Greer ruled that it was "clear and convincing evidence" of such and issued an order that would remove the tube and result in her death, in essence starving her to death. He even went a step further in violation of Florida Statutes and dictated that she couldn't be fed or given fluids orally. Florida law says no one, not even George Greer, can withhold food and water from a person. People who withhold food and water from an animal are charged with felony cruelty, not lauded by their bar association.
Of course just months prior when interviewed by guardian ad litem Richard Pearse about who else beside Michael had heard Terri make the alleged statement that led to her demise, Michael said no one.
Attorneys for Terri's parents, Mary and Robert Schindler who steadfastly opposed Schiavo's efforts to achieve a court-imposed murder, argued that Greer has a conflict of interest in acting in his dual role of judge and guardian ad litem in addition to violating the brain-damaged woman's Fourteenth Amendment right to due process.
But Greer steadfastly refused to recuse himself despite numerous violations of ethics and statutory law----and apparently no one dared to challenge him, certainly not Florida's Judicial Qualifications Commission or Florida's Election Commission, even in the face of blatant election law violations.
After all, he defied the White House, Congress, the Vatican, Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida's Department of Children and Families and federal marshals, even defying a federal subpoena.
Greer's fellow panel member Ronald Cranford was the neurologist chosen by Schiavo and his attorney, Felos, as a medical witness in proceedings before Greer. Cranford, also known as "Dr. Humane Death", testified that there was no hope for recovery for Terri and that she was in a persistent vegetative state.
Wolfson, professor of Public Health and Medicine at the University of Southern Florida, had been appointed Terri's guardian ad litem by the Florida Legislature in October, 2003, to make a report and recommendations to Gov. Jeb Bush about Terri's prognosis. He recommended that she receive additional swallowing tests and should undergo new examinations by independent medical experts to determine if there was any chance of recovery. However, Greer refused to allow any new tests.
In December, 2003, Wolfson, who spent time observing Terri, wrote a report for Gov. Bush that noted, "Highly competent, scientifically based physicians using recognized measures and standards have deduced, within a high degree of medical certainty, that Theresa is in a persistent vegetative state. This evidence is compelling". But Wolfson was no physician.
There are other applicable Canons of the Judicial Code that command the removal of George Greer from the bench---a long overdue removal. But then, he never legally ascended to the bench because he failed comply with election law and didn't legally qualify for office. George Greer has never had legal title to the office which he claims. He didn't even legally qualify to be on the ballot.
Canon 4 of the Judicial Code provides that "a judge may speak, write, lecture, teach and participate in other quasi-judicial activities concerning the law, the legal system and the administration of justice, subject to the requirements of this Code". While Canon 4 permits a judge to engage in various quasi-judicial activities involving the law, the Code requires that the activities not cast reasonable doubt on the judge's capacity to act impartially, demean the judicial office or interfere with the proper performance of judicial duties.
Well, that lets Greer out. There is no concept of impartiality when he appears as the lead speaker with Michael Schiavo, Cranford and Wolfson. As many believe, the fix was in from the beginning to kill Terri Schiavo and Greer helps to solidify that belief more and more every day.
An ethics opinion issued by the Florida Supreme Court on judicial ethics lends even more substance to the claim that Greer is ethically precluded from appearing with Schiavo, Wolfson, Labyak and others at the April 30-May 1 symposium. By the way, how come Greer is traveling to Pennsylvania to speak on such topics? Why isn't he on the judicial calendar in Florida on Monday, May 1 and as a Pinellas County judge, is he ethically allowed to travel out of state to engage in speaking appearances as a judge, using his position to advance the interests of others?
Florida ethics opinion 2005-09 of April 7, 2005 addresses where a judge can ethically engage in extra-judicial conduct, particularly as a presenter at a symposium on a specific legal issue. The ruling was no, he can't. By appearing with the principals involved in the Schiavo case that were hell bent to kill Terri Schiavo, Greer is associated with an advocacy group, advocates for euthanasia, the death cult and activity that gives the appearance of bias against a class of litigants---litigants such as Terri's parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, who fought Michael Schiavo in Greer's court for over eight years to try and save their daughter's life.
It may even constitute a political agenda and judges are definitely precluded from engaging in such political activities. Say, is TerriPAC funding this symposium?
By Greer appearing with the plaintiffs in the case, he is clearly giving the appearance of bias in favor of killing the disabled and in our view, is lending the prestige of his judicial office to advance the private interests of Cranford, Michael Schiavo, Wolfson, Labyak and Caplan in addition to the others appearing at the bioethics symposium.
According to ethics rulings, Canon 2B is a general prohibition against a judge from lending the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others. Another Canon provides that a judge's extrajudicial activities must be conducted in a such a manner so that they do not cast reasonable doubt on the judge's capacity to act impartially as judge, demean the judicial office of interfere with the proper performance of judicial duties.
Greer has shot any claim of impartiality in the foot and anyone who wants to kill their spouse or ward with a judicial decree would only have to insure that Greer is judge assigned---the killing judge so to speak. George Greer is a menace to society, especially to the disabled society.
Ethics rulings have held that a judge must ensure that extrajudicial activities do not cast reasonable doubt on the judge's capacity to act impartially as a judge. Here the inquiring judge proposes to comment extensively on issues arising, and have actually arisen in other courts around the United States. In this context, it would be nearly impossible for the judge to avoid injecting his own legal opinion or foreshadowing how he might rule on a contested legal issue.
But then, we already know how Greer's ruled on the Terri Schiavo case.
There was absolutely no sense of impartiality in the Schiavo case and Greer continues with his blatant disregard for ethics, judicial canons and the law.
George Greer has single-handedly made a mockery of the entire judicial process, not only in Florida, but nationwide. He blatantly violated state laws himself while virtually ignoring the guardianship laws of the state and allowing Michael Schiavo to violate those guardianship laws which were established to protect wards such as Terri Schiavo. He has blatantly violated the constitutional rights of Terri Schiavo and by doing so, the rights of all disabled not only in Florida, but in the nation.
How dare he appear at any symposium with any composition of the word ethics.
The eyes of the entire world were and are on George Greer. Many members of the populace don't like what they see. Now the stench is becoming overwhelming. 2-15-06
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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