Originally Posted - May 21, 2006

return home

She wasn't Lucy Ricardo and she didn't have red hair.

Nevertheless her brother-in-law says "she can be somewhat ditzy".

As a result of testimony by this "somewhat ditzy" individual, accepted as clear and convincing evidence, an innocent disabled Florida woman was sentenced to die and a precedent for forced death was set in the United States.

Where's Joan Schiavo now?

Why hasn't Joan Schiavo ever been interviewed by police or mainstream media about her testimony and her knowledge of the Terri Schiavo case?

Joan Schiavo is a key to the Terri Schiavo case and is the foundation for the euthanasia movement as it exists in America today. Her unchallenged trial testimony in 2000 established that there were problems in the Schiavo marriage prior to her sudden collapse. Her testimony, coupled with statements made by Michael Schiavo in his recently published book, not only lend further proof of Schiavo's propensity to make false statements which serve to totally discredit him, but lends probable cause to open the long needed criminal investigation in the whole matter.

In his book, "Terri: The Truth", Michael Schiavo expresses his concern that his quest to kill his wife was seemingly hinging on the testimony of his sister-in-law, Joan, wife of his oldest brother, Bill. He relates in his book that on the eve of the January, 2000, trial, he picked Joan up from the airport as she had flown in from Philadelphia where she lived. He says that he "wasn't concerned about Scott (his brother), Joan was another matter".

Schiavo relates an incident in his book indicating the unreliability and lack of credibility of Joan Schiavo in which she misplaced her car, thought it had been stolen and reported it as stolen to the police, the filing of a false police report. The next day her friend called to tell her the car was in a church parking lot, where she had left it. It finally dawned on her that she had forgotten she had parked the car there and had instead ridden home with her friend.

"That's Joan", Schiavo says, "and we were counting on her testimony"...and the life of Terri Schindler Schiavo depended on it.

In the days immediately preceding Terri's death last March, Joan Schiavo filed yet another police report, claiming that a car had driven by her home in the early morning hours and that a man had yelled "murderer" at her and said "If Terri dies, I'm coming back to shoot you and your family".

Joan Schiavo has probably filed one false police report, stating that her car had been stolen when she simply forgot where she left it. There was no substantiation to her claim of March, 2005, just as there was no substantiation to her hearsay testimony presented at trial in January, 2000, testimony which helped to kill a disabled woman who couldn't defend herself.

In issuing his now infamous death order on Feb. 11, 2000, dictating the death of brain-injured Terri Schindler Schiavo, Pinellas County probate court judge George W. Greer based his decision on testimony given by Joan Schiavo and her brothers-in law, Michael and Scott Schiavo, on the petition of Michael Schiavo to end the life of his wife and ward by the withdrawal of hydration and nutrition, a feeding tube.   2000 Death Order

"The court has reviewed the testimony of Scott Schiavo and Joan Schiavo and finds nothing contained therein to be unreliable", Greer wrote. "The court notes that neither of these witnesses appeared to have shaded his or her testimony or even attempt to exclude unfavorable comments or points regarding those discussions. They were not impeached on cross-examination. Argument is made as to why they waited so long to step forward, but their explanations are worthy of belief..."

"The court specifically finds that these statements are Terri Schiavo's oral declarations concerning her intention as to what she would want done under the present circumstances and the testimony regarding such oral declarations is reliable, is creditable and rises to the level of clear and convincing evidence to this court".

In his book, Michael Schiavo not only misrepresents and allegedly fabricates trial testimony allegedly given by Joan Schiavo, but a close examination of the incidents and events leading up to the January, 2000 trial would seem to evince clear and convincing evidence of premeditated homicide, a pattern of acts and decisions made by Michael Schiavo with the intent to kill a human being.

Terri had sustained severe brain damage on Feb. 25, 1990, as the result of a mysterious and suspicious incident at her St. Petersburg apartment with her husband as the only known witness.

The incapacitated woman was the center of a extended court battle between her parents, Mary and Bob Schindler Sr., and her husband, Michael who became engaged to his live-in girlfriend before initiating his petition asking the court to cease Terri's assisted feeding to cause her death.

Stricken at 26, Terri Schiavo left no living will or no known written statement of her wishes regarding artificial life support. However, nearly 10 years after the incident at her home and after the award of over $1 million from medical malpractice claims, Michael Schiavo had a sudden recollection of an alleged oral statement Terri had made some 15 years previous in 1984. He professed that he couldn't remember much else because he had a bad memory, but he remembered a train conversation for which there were no witnesses and which his wife couldn't refute.

Based on the known facts of the case and his own published statements, a path of evidence evolves that shows the careful planning of Terri's death and the motives for it--sex, money and revenge, and an intense hatred of the Schindler family.

While Michael has portrayed his marriage to Terri as idealistic and without problems, Joan Schiavo indicates by her testimony it wasn't the perfect marriage that Schiavo has claimed.

At page 240 of the trial transcript of Joan Schiavo's testimony, during her less than stellar cross examination, Schindler attorney Pamela Campbell asks Joan:

Campbell: Did you talk to Terri -- you were testifying about how frequently you talked to her. Five out of seven days?

Joan: Um-hmm.

Campbell: Was that right up to the time of the accident?

Joan: Um-hmm. I talked to her two days before it happened.

Campbell: Did she ever discuss with you problems that she and Mike were having?

Joan: No. I mean, no marriage is perfect. Mine is not. It was nothing out of the ordinary.

First Joan says no, there were no problems in the Michael-Terri marriage but then quickly tries to qualify that. She infers that Mike and Terri were in fact having problems. But Pamela Campbell didn't follow up with this questioning, leaving one to wonder just what does Joan Schiavo know about the problems between Michael and Terri Schiavo prior to her sudden collapse?

In his death order, Greer wrote he found witnesses for the Schindlers and particularly Terri's mother, Mary Schindler, unreliable and not credible, claiming that their testimony differed from that of depositions given pretrial. It was obvious that Greer didn't compare the pre-trial deposition of Michael Schiavo with his trial testimony or else he intentionally chose to totally disregard it because if he had, the glaring discrepancies would have clearly impeached Michael Schiavo---something that Pamela Campbell, should have done but failed to do.

Schiavo says in his book that Joan Schiavo was first approached by his attorney, George Felos only after guardian ad litem Richard Pearse had issued his 14-page report on Dec. 29, 1998, recommending that the feeding tube not be removed, saying that there was "no corroborative evidence of the ward's intentions and since the only witness claiming to have such evidence is the only person who will realize a direct and substantial financial benefit from the ward's death", he found that Schiavo and Felos had not met the clear and convincing standard needed to kill Terri Schiavo.

Michael Schiavo's credibility is totally negated in his book when he quotes alleged verbatim testimony given by his sister-in-law Joan Schiavo at the January 2000 trial. The testimony as quoted by Michael Schiavo simply does not exist in the court transcript. What else has he fabricated?

In his book, Schiavo says that Joan and his brother, Bill, had lost their first child which had been born with the umbilical cord around her neck. He says in the book that "in that same conversation with Terri about the patient in the movie, Joan began talking about their experience with the death of the baby, and it's a story she also told George Greer".

If Joan Schiavo told the story to George Greer that Michael Schiavo relates in his book, there must have been an wholly unlawful ex parte communication between Judge Greer and Joan Schiavo as the court record does not contain the statements which Schiavo attributes to his sister-in-law.

He quotes Joan Schiavo as having told Greer "We were just sitting and talking about the baby. If she had stayed alive-because of the cord being wrapped around her neck---she probably would have been brain dead, and my husband and I would have to make that decision, if we were faced with it, if we wanted to keep her alive like that or not. And as we were talking, I said that as hard as it would be, it would be a decision where we'd probably pull the plug, because I couldn't stand to see her like that. 'Cause it wasn't a life for her, she's only a little baby. And Terri agreed with me".

According to the official court transcript, those words were never spoken under oath in court before Judge Greer by Joan Schiavo. It appears to be a total fabrication of "evidence" by Michael Schiavo, and perhaps not the only instance of fabricated evidence. JOAN SCHIAVO TESTIMONY

Michael Schiavo acquired guardianship by submitting a now proven false written instrument to the court, attesting under oath---under penalty of perjury---that he had obtained an AS degree from Bucks County Community College. According to the office of the college registrar, he didn't.

In testimony that Felos elicited from Joan Schiavo in January, 2000 which can only be described as leading the witness without objection from Pamela Campbell, she testified about the rather raucous, crude behavior of her husband and Michael's family, relating that the first time she met Terri, Michael had brought her to their house where everybody had been drinking. She testified that her husband, Michael's brother Bill, came into the room dancing and yelled "Everybody drop your pants".

She testified that she doesn't remember the year that she met Terri, maybe it was '81 or '82. She testified that she and Terri went "nightclubbing", not always with their husbands. There was no testimony about any umbilical cords or even anything about her own children except that she had children. She testified that her friends had a baby who had been born "sickly" and that they "had to put the baby on a ventilator or machines to keep the baby alive". Joan Schiavo's testimony was about removing a baby from machines, not a simple feeding tube and she testified that Terri had told her, pure uncorroborated hearsay, that "if she and Michael were ever put in that kind of situation, she wouldn't want to have to deal with it", and said that Terri had indicated that she would do the same thing that the parents of the baby had done, make a decision to remove the baby from the life support machines. The comments which Joan Schiavo attributed to Terri were related to what her wishes would be if she and Michael had a baby being kept alive on machines, not her own wishes.

She then related under oath that she and Terri had watched a movie on TV involving a "guy" who'd had an accident and was in a coma and was on various machines. She says Terri had stated that she wanted the tubes and everything taken out and that movie said the movie showed the "guy" with tubes in his mouth and arms. She admitted that she had not seen Terri the 10 years since her accident, did not know what type of life sustaining measures were being taken for Terri and didn't know what a feeding tube looked like. Her entire testimony is based on machines, not basic food and water through a feeding tube.

Joan Schiavo's testimony is most definitely not as Michael Schiavo has related and throughout her brief appearance on the witness stand, she couldn't say yes or no but rather "um-hmm" without Greer or Campbell objecting.

Her testimony wasn't clear and convincing of anything-except maybe Michael Schiavo's of her as being "ditzy".

The fate of Terri Schiavo hinged on the testimony of five people, three for her husband who was trying to end her life, and two for her parents. Michael, his brother, Scott and Joan Schiavo testified to end her life; Campbell presented only two witnesses on behalf of the Schindlers, to testify that Terri would not want her feeding tube removed---Terri's mother and Terri's long-time childhood friend, Diane Meyer.

Meyer testified that she recalled Terri saying, "Where there's life, there's hope", but Greer decided Joan Schiavo, a family member which a direct Schiavo interest, was more credible that Diane Meyer, a 20-year friend of Terri's who had no tangential interest in the case.

The ineffectiveness of the Schindler's counsel was clearly shown in the inadequate cross examination of the three Schiavos and failure to impeach Michael Schiavo when he gave different testimony at trial than he had in deposition. Campbell hadn't done any pre-trial investigation, didn't take pre-trial deposition from Joan and Scott Schiavo, an essential basic pre-trial step. And then there was the fatal admission in her opening statement by Campbell, stating that the Schindlers didn't contest that Terri was in a persistent vegetative state.

Only after Pearse's report which Greer rejected did Scott and Joan Schiavo suddenly come forward to allegedly corroborate Michael Schiavo's "repressed memory" that Terri wanted to die---but Greer said he could understand that.

In his attempt to support his brother's statement that Terri made oral wishes not to be kept alive, Scott Schiavo offered three different versions of a single statement that Terri had allegedly made although no one else heard it but Scott. Abraham Lincoln said no man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.

As Michael Schiavo meandered through the court proceedings, he rendered flawed testimony by adding new versions of Terri's alleged wishes as he went along, versions that he had not originally told to the court investigator who had directly asked him if there were any other people who could corroborate what he was saying about Terri's wishes and at that time, Schiavo had said no. By September, 1999, he'd had his memory jarred.

There is but one legal cite in Greer's legally unsupported death warrant. The order rambles on about collateral issues, how they have no relevancy. While the standard for death is clear and convincing evidence, it is painfully obvious even to the most unindoctrinated person in the Schiavo case that Greer's decision that Terri Schiavo should die wasn't based on fact, it wasn't based on anything anywhere near clear and convincing evidence, it was based on Greer's personal preferences and his prejudice.

Michael Schiavo's book is a roadmap for murder. He makes crucial admissions and reveals his motives, intent and thought processes in the book, making the decision to end Terri's life shortly after he met Jodi Ann Centonze and intensifying the efforts to do so after he became engaged to her in October, 1994. Coupled with the known facts and existing legal documents, the book reveals that efforts were made in the spring of 1997 to secretively and surreptitiously end the life of Terri Schiavo even before his mother died. Schiavo has long claimed that it was her mother's death in June, 1997 that convinced him to end his wife's life. However, even the letter from his long-time guardianship attorney Deborah Bushnell to Judge Mark Shames in May, 1997, indicates that they had tried to quietly end her life without telling her parents.

According to Michael's book, he met Jodi In July 1993 in a dental office, shortly before the Schindlers filed a legal challenge on July 29, 1993, to his guardianship which he had obtained by a false statement on his 1990 guardianship application. He says that Bushnell suggested that he retain attorney Stephen Nilsson to represent him to defend his guardianship.

After he met Jodi and before he was served with the guardianship challenge, he had set up an appointment for Terri with Dr. Patrick Mulroy who he says asked him "why don't you think about stopping her feeding?" Schiavo says that Mulroy also told him if he was "unable to give the order" to remove her feeding tube, to consider not treating Terri if she developed an infection.

The seed of killing his wife had been planted. Now he had money, there was a sizeable amount in Terri's trust fund which he would inherit upon her death and he had a new girlfriend. And he despised the Schindlers.

On Aug. 31, 1993, a deposition in the case was given by Mary Schindler and Michael's animus towards the Schindlers literally exudes from the pages of the book as he recounts the court case.

Shortly after the deposition, Terri was diagnosed with an urinary tract infection and Michael states he issued an order to the nursing home not to treat it and placed a do not resuscitate order in her records.

He says after issuing his orders, he was sitting with Terri, apparently waiting for the death process to begin, when the nursing home administration of Sabal Palms told him they were not allowed to withhold treatment from a patient and they refused to enforce the DNR because it violated Florida law.

His attempts to kill his wife hadn't worked so far.

Terri's father, Bob Schindler Sr., was deposed on Nov. 17, 1993 and the following day, on Nov. 18, 1993, Michael says he took Terri to see Dr. Thomas Harrison who allegedly suggested to him, as had Mulroy, not to treat Terri's next infection. Schiavo says Harrison also suggested removing Terri's feeding tube.

In Nov. 19, 1993, the day after Harrison suggested that should remove Terri's feeding tube, Michael Schiavo gave his deposition in the guardianship case and for the first time, after admitting that he had discussed Harrison's recommendation with Jodi, he claimed that he knew Terri's wishes, "remembering" for the first time the train ride and her purported statements for which there were no witnesses. "I was making a decision on what Terri would want", he testified. It was his decision, not Terri's.

By his testimony on Nov. 19, 1993, Michael first made known his decision to kill his wife, the day after consulting with Harrison----not in 1997 after his mother died.

Jack Kevorkian has served nearly seven years in prison for assisted suicide. According to Michael Schiavo both Mulroy and Harrison were advocating that Schiavo commit assisted suicide. So far, neither Harrison, Mulroy, Schiavo or George Greer have been charged with assisted suicide.

According to the Schindlers, a court investigator had been assigned in the guardianship to investigate Michael and determine his fitness to be a guardian. They say that the investigator recommended to the Judge Thomas Penick that Michael be removed as guardian. But Penick reportedly didn't accept the report, instead appointing attorney John Pecarek as a guardian ad litem. On March 1, 1994, Pecarek orally presented his report, recommending that Michael Schiavo remain as his wife's guardian. Without any chance for cross examination of Pecarek by the Schindler's attorney, Penick closed the case and refused any rehearing.

Michael Schiavo moved from his parents' house into his own apartment, bought himself a Jeep and moved Terri from Sabal Palms to Palm Gardens, discontinuing all rehabilitation and therapy by the end of March.

Seven months later, in October, 1994, he proposed to Jodi and in 1995, they built a house together in Oldsmar, putting it in her name. He was under court order that he could not own property as Terri's guardian. He says he used money from his malpractice award to build the house while Jodi sold her house and rental properties for her share.

His mother died in June, 1997 and shortly thereafter, he says he went to see Bushnell. He says she hooked him up with George Felos. However, Schiavo doesn't reveal in his book that he'd already signed a contract with Felos months earlier. He also doesn't reveal what fee petitions and court records substantiate, that in the months prior to his mother's death, Bushnell and he had been engaged in prohibited ex parte communications with Judge Mark Shames, trying to secretively arrange for the death of Terri without notification to her parents.

Their covert attempts are revealed in a letter written to Shames by Bushnell on May 6, 1997 about their request to Shames' to sign a prepared order authorizing Schiavo as guardian to employ an attorney concerning the "issue of withdrawal or refusal of medical treatment for the ward".

The court docket in the Pinellas County Court clerk's office shows that such an order dated April 21, 1997 was unsigned. This evidence solidly disputes Schiavo's claim that he didn't decide to remove Terri's feeding tube to end her life until after the death of his mother. He had in fact had the plan underway months before her death.

As of the date of Bushnell's letter, under Florida Statutes, a feeding tube was not considered artificial life support. Once the Schindlers became aware that Michael Schiavo, Felos and Bushnell were attempting to kill Terri Schiavo with the assistance of the court and challenged the action judicially in 1998, steps were taken in 1999 to change the law in the Florida legislature to designate feeding tubes as "medical treatment" and "artificial life support".

Court records show that Shames signed an order on May 14, 1997, authorizing Schiavo to retain George Felos to initiate proceedings to kill his wife, to be paid $195 an hour from Terri's trust fund.

According to the fee petitions in the case, later sealed by the court, Schiavo already had his plan to kill his wife underway by late 1995 and Felos was already involved in the matter----contradicting Schiavo's claim that he didn't proceed until after his mother's death.

The fee petitions show that on Dec. 13, 1995, Bushnell contacted Felos telephonically and asked for "assistance with analysis of life-prolonging procedures statute..." The written fee petitions show that Michael's statement in his book that infers that Felos was not involved in the matter under after his mother's death in June, 1997 when he says that Bushnell put him "in touch" with Felos. According to the existing documentation on file in the office of the clerk of the court, Felos by that time had already been involved for nearly two years----and hadn't talked to Joan Schiavo about Terri's alleged wish to die nor had Joan Schiavo told anyone of Terri's purported oral declarations although Joan Schiavo claims that she was staying informed of Terri's situation.

According to the court records, Bushnell and Felos talked about removing Terri's feeding tube for a half an hour in December, 1995---chargeable to Terri.

The records show that in February, 1997, Terri's trust fund was billed for $54 for Bushnell to talk to Michael by phone "re: associating George Felos to handle removal of life support issue". The premeditated plan to kill Terri Schiavo was well underway.

Although Michael Schiavo claims in his book which he claims is "The Truth", that he had his first meeting with George Felos after his mother died, the court records prove him to be a liar. He signed a contract with Felos on March 5, 1997 "to represent him in connection with the withdrawal and/or refusal of medical treatment" This is nearly 10 weeks before Shames signed a court order authorizing Schiavo to employ and pay an attorney with the costs to be "borne by the client", contingent on the approval of the Pinellas County Probate Court---and the ex parte communications with Judge Mark Shames. Shames approved the agreement but the costs associated with killing Terri by the withdrawal of medical treatment weren't borne by "the client" but rather by Terri through her trust fund. As of this date, there was no mention of a feeding tube---no doubt because as of 1997, Florida law did not consider feeding tubes to be medical treatment.

Pursuant to judicial canons, Shames should have had no role in the Schiavo matter as prior to becoming a judge, the Schindlers had discussed the whole guardianship case with him, hoping to retain him to represent them in challenging Michael as guardian. However, they could not raise the $15,000 retainer fee which Shames had demanded.

The Schiavo-Bushnell-Felos attempt to covertly kill Terri Schiavo without the knowledge of her parents might have worked except for one thing---Judge Thomas Penick had earlier signed an order that the Schindlers were to be notified of any change in her medical condition after Schiavo had previously tried to withhold medical information from them. Shames upheld Penick's order and returned Bushnell's prepared order from April 21, unsigned, advising that Terri's parents had to be informed about the plan afoot.

That precipitated Bushnell's May 6, 1997, letter to Shames, saying that "The guardian is aware that the issue of withdrawal or refusal of medical treatment for the ward is a difficult issue in this case and that the ward's parents will need to be involved". However, as of that point, despite their communications with the court for nearly two months at that time, Bushnell and Felos hadn't notified the Schindlers.

Bushnell acknowledged the ex parte communication she had initiated with the court, basically asserting that they wanted all their ducks in a row and Felos legally on board, being paid by Terri's trust fund, before telling the Schindlers that Michael Schiavo was planning to kill their daughter.

"It is anticipated that the parents will initially be approached gently and informally by Attorney Felos regarding this issue, that Hospice will be involved, and that counseling will be provided to the guardian and the parents to assist with the decision-making process," Bushnell explained. She said that "Attorney Felos, the guardian, and I feel that the receipt of a petition for payment of attorney fees regarding this issue would not be the best and kindest way for the ward's parents to learn that this issue is being considered."

As of the date of this letter, Terri was still a patient at Palm Gardens but by her statement, it was obvious that the plan to move her to the Hospice of Florida Suncoast where Felos was a board member was already underway although ultimately it took until April, 2000 to implement it. Again, the Schindlers were not told of Felos' affiliation with hospice.

In a letter dated Aug. 23, 1997, Felos told the Schindlers of the intent to kill their daughter.

Schiavo claims in his "truthful" book that in his first meeting with Felos to plan Terri's death after his mother died. "George asked me to tell him all times that Terri had in various ways expressed her desire not to live the way she was being kept alive".

With the plans thwarted to quietly withdraw Terri's feeding tube without her parents' knowledge, they began planning how to meet the clear and convincing standard as dictated in the 1990 guardianship case of Estelle Browning in which Felos had been the attorney.

"He told me to track down everyone who might be able to testify to Terri's wishes" but despite this admitted directive by Felos to him in mid-1997, apparently neither Scott or Joan Schiavo had any recollection of Terri's purported oral declarations at that time. Joan Schiavo admits in her testimony that she was not contacted by anyone about Terri's alleged wishes, nor did she volunteer anything, until September, 1999, when Felos contacted her, after Pearse had issued his report attacking Michael's credibility and the fact there were no corroborating witnesses to his claim.

Schiavo says in his book Felos told him it would take eight months to a year to petition the court, or in other words, to develop a case to kill his wife. However, in essence, it took Felos from 1995 until May, 1998 to petition the court for permission for Michael Schiavo to kill his wife---and another seven years to achieve it.

A year after Shames had refused to sign the order that would have presumptively allowed Schiavo and his attorneys to kill Terri without informing her parents, Felos petitioned the court for permission to remove artificial life support and for appointment of a guardian ad litem.

George W. Greer was allegedly randomly assigned to the case.

On June 11, 1998, Greer appointed Richard Pearse as the guardian ad litem which Schiavo says did not please Felos as Felos and Pearse had an "adversarial history". According to Schiavo, in a 1991 court case, Felos had petitioned the court for fees which Pearse said were unreasonable and had opposed. While Pearse reportedly recommended that Felos only received $10,000 to $12,500, the court supposedly ordered that Felos receive $17,500.

According to Schiavo, Pearse told Bushnell in October, 1998, about two and half months before he issued his report, that he had a problem with Schiavo's credibility. Schiavo says in his book that on Oct. 14, 1998, that "tube feeding is different from other life support and that he generally had problems with the practice of discontinuing artificial feeding".

On Dec. 29, 1998, Pearse issued his report to Greer, six months after his appointment, recommending against the removal of Terri's feeding tube, stating that the credibility of the witness, Schiavo, was a factor to be considered in determining whether evidence is clear and convincing Schiavo and Felos immediately claimed that Pearse was biased and had an animus against Felos and a "personal aversion to removing feeding tubes".

Greer rejected Pearse's report and Felos immediately began trying to gather corroboration and support for Schiavo's self-serving hearsay, prohibited under Florida Statutes.

In April, 1999, House Bill 2131 was introduced in the Florida House by the Elder Affairs and Long Term Care Committee. The bill passed into law, signed in October, 1999, by Gov. Jeb Bush, and amended Section 765 of Florida Statutes to change the definition of "life prolonging procedures" to add "including artificially provided sustenance and hydration which sustains, restores or supplants a spontaneous vital function".

Rep. Gus Bilikaris was a member of that committee----and a member of the board of directors at Hospice of Florida Suncoast with Felos---and a campaign contributor to George W. Greer.

In September 1999, for the first time, during Michael's deposition in preparation for upcoming trial to remove Terri's feeding tube, Felos asks if there was anyone else that knew about Terri's alleged oral declarations. Michael testifies yes, his brother Scott Schiavo and sister-in-law Joan Schiavo. This is at approximately the same time that Joan Schiavo admits that Felos had first contacted her about any purported conversations she may have had with Terri about end-of-life decisions.

Michael Schiavo says in his book he "was given to emotional outbursts when (he) felt they were warranted". He didn't indicate if he'd had an emotional outburst during the early morning hours of Feb. 25, 1990, before Terri's collapse and before the paramedics were called.

Greer clearly was so prejudiced against the Schindlers and Terri's friends, it's clear he would have found them unreliable no matter what they said or evidence produced. Greer maintained that Michael Schiavo and his self-serving hearsay and that of his relatives was credible but that Mary Schindler and Terri's friends were not but he could not cite any documented reason decision. He just chose to subjectively believe Michael Schiavo and his relatives over Mary Schindler and Diane Meyer.

It still comes down to the fact that an innocent woman was sentenced to death by hearsay, hearsay by a woman whose own brother-in-law labels "ditzy"; hearsay by her conflicted husband who has now rewritten and manufactured testimony that he claims was given in court but the court transcripts clearly prove he has made yet another false statement.

So much for Michael Schiavo's credibility.

Chapter 90 of Florida Statutes stated at the time of trial that no person interested in an action or proceeding against the personal representative...of a deceased person or agent...or guardian of a mentally incompetent person shall be examined as a witness regarding any oral communications between the interested person and the person who is deceased or mentally ill at the time of the exam.

By established standards, a guardian must base a life-ending decision on "clear and convincing" evidence of what the patient wanted. The Court specifically recognized that reliance on oral statements does not have the same presumption of clear and convincing evidence as written declarations. It stated that "the evidence of the patient's oral declarations [must be] reliable". (emphasis added).

A review of the facts in the Schiavo case would seem to find Michael Schiavo's testimony, as well as Joan and Scott Schiavo's as wholly unreliable. Additionally Michael Schiavo's was, by law, inadmissible self-serving testimony which would not suffice to meet the required "clear and convincing" evidentiary standard needed to cause his wife's death.

The Florida Supreme Court held in Browning that when the decision of proxy or surrogate to refuse medical treatment on behalf of an incompetent patient is challenged, although the surrogate may rely on oral statements allegedly made by an incompetent patient while competent, to exercise patient's wishes to forego life-sustaining treatment, presumption of clear and convincing evidence that attaches to written declaration does not attach to purely oral declarations. While oral evidence, considered alone, may constitute clear and convincing evidence, surrogate (Michael Schiavo) would bear the burden of proof if the decision based purely on oral evidence is challenged.

It's now known that Michael Schiavo lied under oath on the guardianship application and now he's fabricated court testimony in his book. What else has he fabricated?

Where's Joan Schiavo? If she could ever be properly be questioned about her knowledge of the circumstances of the Schiavo marriage and the events immediately prior to her collapse, finally the story of Terri: The Truth might creditably be told.   5-21-06