Originally Posted - December 23, 2006

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There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call "The Twilight Zone".

Florida has crossed over into the Twilight Zone. http://timstvshowcase.com/tzone.html


Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has issued a moratorium of executions in Florida after the botched execution of convicted murderer Angel Nieves Diaz took 34 minutes, twice as long as usual, and required a rare second doze of lethal chemicals.

The governor said he wants to ensure the process does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment as some death penalty opponents argued.

Bush appointed a commission to study the humanity and constitutionality of lethal injections.

Hours later, a federal judge in California suspended executions in that state saying that the state's lethal injection system violated the constitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

But in Florida, federal judges and state judges upheld Pinellas County probate court judge George W. Greer's order to starve and dehydrate a disabled woman over 13 days but the courts decided that wasn't cruel and unusual punishment, the barbaric death of a handicapped woman by dehydration was constitutional.

We have indeed crossed past the line of double standards and entered the Twilight Zone.


Angel Diaz was convicted of murdering a human being. He was sentenced to die.

Terri Schindler Schiavo had committed no crime. She was a victim. She was incapacitated and could not speak for herself. Judge George W. Greer placed himself in the conflicted dual position of guardian ad litem and judge. Greer never once personally visited his ward. He sentenced her to die with withdrawal of not just what he deemed to be artificial life support by the withdrawal of her feeding tube, but refused to allow her all food and water, a violation of Florida law.

Florida has suspended the executions of murderers because it took 34 minutes for a convicted murderer to die but they didn't deem it cruel and unusual punishment when it took 13 days for an innocent, disabled woman to die while the whole world watched?

It's cruel at 34 minutes but not at 13 days?

This is an absolute outrage! Where were the human rights groups last March as Terri Schiavo last dying of thirst in a Florida hospice, sentenced to the death penalty by Judge Greer. Jeb Bush and the courts are obviously more concerned about convicted murderers than they are of an innocent brain injured woman whose had the misfortune to have opportunist, egotistical adulterer Michael Schiavo as her legal husband.

There's something grossly wrong with this picture.

If Terri Schiavo had been a criminal, she'd likely be alive today.

Michael Schiavo knowingly, willfully and intentionally killed his wife and he did so with the total absolution and sanction of the court, aided and abetted by George W. Greer. Schiavo, George Felos and Greer openly engaged in euthanasia and assisted suicide, claiming that Terri would have wanted Michael Schiavo to kill her by removing her feeding tube and causing her agonizing death over 13 days.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal in Florida, just as it is in Michigan as Jack "Dr. Death" Kervorkian learned. He in essence did the same thing that Michael Schiavo did. He killed a person, making it a public spectacle with Kervorkian's murder televised on 60 Minutes, claiming that his victim had wanted to die, just like Michael claimed that Terri wanted to die.

Terri's death was televised for 13 days but the state and federal courts sanctioned her death. They didn't suspend her execution. They even refused to grant a de novo review.

Jack Kervorkian was guilty of murder. He's served eight years of a 10 to 25 year sentence for a second degree murder in the 1998 poisoning of a Michigan man afflicted with Lou Gehrig's disease. He claimed it was euthanasia or mercy killing but the jury said it was murder.

So why hasn't Michael Schiavo been arrested yet for murder, Greer and Felos with him for being accessories to murder. How can the public accept these double standards. Why do murderers obtain more protection than the disabled in Florida?

Don't tell us it was because it was Terri's wish. Da da da da da da da da. Twilight zone again. There's simply no clear and convincing it was Terri's wish. Self-serving hearsay isn't admissible in Florida so why did Greer allow it to be uttered and why didn't the appellate courts strike it down? And hubby's two "witnesses" simply were not credible. Joan Schiavo has disappeared, where is she? Ashamed she lied?

In Virginia this week, a man was convicted of premeditated first degree murder for killing his wife after she nagged him to do so. He tried to tell the jury it was a mercy killing but the jury didn't buy it and recommended that the 58-year-old man afflicted with Parkinson's disease spend 23 years in prison.

The jury heard testimony that Jesse Cayton's 80-year-old wife told her husband and others that she wanted to be killed. She suffered from congestive heart failure and lung problems and he testified that she had repeatedly begged him to kill her, kind of like enacting her living will.

Cayton says one morning he looked into her eyes and saw a lot of pain. He says his wife handed him a pistol and wanted him to shoot her. He fired all five rounds, hitting her three times.

But unlike Pinellas state attorney Bernie McCabe (left) and AG Charlie Crist (right), Augusta County prosecutor A. Lee Ervin said it didn't matter if Cayton's wife wanted to be killed, "that's not a permissible thing to do in Virginia".

Murder isn't legalized in Florida and executions have been suspended. Terri Schiavo wasn't terminal, she was handicapped. Even the medical examiner said in his autopsy report that Terri Schindler Schiavo could have lived another 10 years.

The prosecutor told the jury in his closing statement that Mrs. Cayton was sick and permanently hooked to oxygen but her death wasn't a mercy killing, "there's no evidence that she was going to die anytime soon. This man shot her down like a dog".

There was no evidence that Terri Schindler Schiavo was going to die anytime soon, unless of course Michael Schiavo tried yet again to withhold medical treatment from her as he had twice before.

Michael Schiavo didn't shoot his wife like a dog, he did something much more cruel. He made her die a barbaric death without even an ice chip----13 long agonizing days. THAT'S cruel and unusual punishment. THAT'S premeditated murder. THAT's unlawful. The double standards cannot be allowed to exist.

Jeb Bush says that a 34-minute death for an convicted killer is too long, too cruel, too unusual but Jeb Bush and the courts didn't find Terri Schiavo's 13-day death by dehydration cruel or unusual nor did they find it criminal.

Jesse Cayton will likely spend the next 23 years in prison for killing his wife, an act he says that she requested him to do.

Michael Schiavo killed his wife, claiming that she asked him to do it, openly premeditated her death on at least three occasions, finally achieving it in March 2005. So far he hasn't been criminally charged.

You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone. 12-23-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette