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Do You Trust the Legal System with Your Life?
The Terri Schiavo case has brought this question to the forefront of the minds of thinking people in the United States. The answer is important - as we have seen, it is “life and death” important.
Lots and lots of material has been written, research done, time dedicated and energy expended showing the world the spider web of potential conflicts of interest found in Pinellas County, where Terri Schiavo was starved to death. Suffice it to say that a large portion of those who have truly educated themselves on this issue (both “liberal” and “conservative”) have questions about the outcome that was the result of multiple legal challenges and reviews.
And a woman has died.
If our legal system is capable of making such a grave error in the case of Terri, could it make such a mistake in other cases? Could other people die who shouldn’t?
And if the answer you give is “maybe” – how does this impact your perspective of the death penalty? The question I’m raising is not “Does a murderer deserves to die?” but rather “Could someone be wrongly convicted and subsequently be put to death?” If you don’t trust the legal system with Terri’s life, can you trust the courts with the life of a convicted killer and be logically consistent?
Admittedly, there is one enormous difference between the two cases: the jury.
But is it enough? Is a jury foolproof? Can a jury ever wrongly convict? Would you trust the legal system with your life?
Reasoned debate in the comments section is welcomed, with a couple of caveats. First, you can’t put a monetary value on life, so “cost of execution and appeals versus cost of life in prison” is not a valid consideration. Second, “all conservatives are hypocrites” is also not a valid argument, nor is “liberals don’t think rationally.”
http://myopiczeal.blogsome.com/2005/04/06/do-you-trust-the-legal-system-with-your-life/trackback/
The problem that I see is not that the justice system necessarily made a mistake in this case insomuch as it chose to stay ignorant of the facts. One must assume, when dealing with the judiciary, that they are going to take a fair, unbiased look at all the relavent evidence in the case. In the Terri Schiavo case, I don’t believe that happened. I feel that Greer simply picked and chose the facts that he found relevent. The rest of the appeals process, unfortunately, worked exactly as it should have.
Comment by Drew — April 6, 2005 @ 2:04 pm
What are the details of the case and evidence? Often stuff is thrown out for ridiculously small/minute violations of legal steps. Could he himself have been bound? Often for a jury that is the case - they can’t know, or don’t get to see, certain evidence. What is an unbiased look? I don’t know myself.
The justice system is based on a certain foundation - that men and women, whether chosen or elected, will decide what is just. Democracy works both in making our laws and deciphering our laws. The “people” decide on the individuals who will make the laws and name “judges” who interpret them. If the majority of the people choose what they think is right and name “their” people to be in charge and you disagree with the majority there ain’t a *expletive* thing you can do about it.
Democracy eventually results in power to the majority. Scary thought…might as well work to get “your people” to form the majority.
Comment by Matt — April 6, 2005 @ 4:07 pm
I don’t believe the comparison is particularly valid.
Clearly the justice system is not perfect in the case of criminal hearings and trials. People can be railroaded and forced to plea bargain because they know the deck is stacked against them, legitimately or illegitimately. People, clearly guilty, get off the hook as well for silly reasons. And some just beat the system such as O.J. Still others get the death penalty. But you cannot get the death penalty from only having a hearing before a judge and without your own legal representation. You must have a jury trial and the sentence of death must be unanimous.
In the Schiavo case we had someone who we knew was innocent; not guilty of any crime. That was never at issue. But we do know that there was a preponderance of evidence regarding abuse and domestic violence that was suppressed, disregarded, or destroyed. We also know that there was ample evidence that Terri was responsive and not in a persistant vegetative state according to the definition in the Florida State statutes. In Terri’s case there seemed to be a compulsion to kill her, both by her husband, George Felos, her husband’s lawyer, and Judge Greer. Based on the bone scans along with testimonies from friends and nurses, Michael Schiavo’s reasons for wanting his wife dead are highly suspect. Adding cremation into the mix makes it even more suspicious almost to the point of a confession. The appeals courts both state and federal had options in their reviews. They chose to support the judge for reasons I believe were more political than substantial. This was a circle the wagons manuever; one of our boys is being attacked. At the federal level it was clearly a political power play. It is interesting that Judge Greer refused to allow Terri a jury hearing. Greer became the judge, jury, Terri’s de facto lawyer, and interestingly, her guardian. Such a deal.
It is also interesting to note that a convicted killer is not executed while the appeals process is active. In Terri’s case she was being murdered while that process was underway.
And now the Department of Children and Families is trying to seal all records, except of course for Michael. He can look at them. I wonder why that is?
Bottom line… I don’t think the judicial system made a “grave error”. Strong evidence would support the idea that Terri Schiavo was deliberately murdered by her husband and the courts. They knew what they were doing and would consider no other option.
Comment by Taste of Liberty — April 6, 2005 @ 7:46 pm
No way!!! However the Schaivo case is different. Those corrupt, political , social -engineers who murdered Terri Shindler did so to advance their “death-to the-defenseless” movement . If we don”t unite and scream FOUL and punish this corruption , if we don’t draw a line, then we will face unspeakable horrors in the future.
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