[Apologetics] Fwd: Statements regarding Schiavo case

[Dianne Dawson]

SCCL <sccl at sclife.org> wrote:From: "SCCL" <sccl at sclife.org>
To: "SCCL" <sccl at bellsouth.net>
Subject: Statements regarding Schiavo case
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2005 15:26:52 -0500

st1\:* {	BEHAVIOR: url(#default#ieooui)}To:    SCCL E-TREE
From:    Holly Gatling, Executive Director
         South Carolina Citizens for Life
         803-252-5433
 
 

Below are 2 releases issued by NRLC this morning in response to Judge Whittemore’s denial of a stay in the case of Terri Schiavo.  Please forward to your own lists.

 

For immediate release:                                         For more information:

Tuesday, March 22, 2005                                        Megan Dillon (202) 626-8825;

                                                                                                

 

            NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE DENOUNCES ABUSE OF JUDICIAL POWER--

                DESPITE FEDERAL LAW, JUDGE WHITEMORRE DENIES STAY,

                                     CONDEMNS TERRI TO DEATH

 

Judge James D. Whittemore has ruled, in effect, that Terri Schindler-Schiavo may not receive the federal court hearing mandated by Congressional passage of the federal "Terri's Law".  Claiming that she has no "probability of success on the merits," Whittemore denied any stay of the state court's starvation/dehydration order during further proceedings in federal court.  The denial of stay must immediately be appealed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

 

"Judge Whittemore has engaged in a gross abuse of judicial power," said Burke J. Balch, J.D., director of the Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics of the National Right to Life Committee.   "Giving not even the

slightest deference to an Act of Congress, without even allowing time for meaningful legal argument or consideration of evidence, Whittemore has ruled that Terri Schiavo's death sentence must be carried out.  Unless higher courts issue a stay on appeal, an innocent young woman will be denied what every mass murderer convicted in state court gets - her day in federal court," stated Balch. 

 

NRLC is the nation's largest pro-life organization, with 50 state affiliates and approximately 3,000 local affiliates nationwide. NRLC works through legislation and education to protect those threatened by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and assisted suicide.  

 

 

For immediate release:                                                     For more information:

Tuesday, March 22, 2005                                                    Megan Dillon (202) 626-8825

 

 

 “CLEAR LEGAL ERROR” IN JUDGE WHITTEMORE’S 

FAILURE TO APPLY FEDERAL TERRI’S LAW 

 

This statement may be attributed to Burke J. Balch, J.D., Director of the National Right to Life Committee’s Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics:

 

            Judge Whittemore’s ruling refusing to feed Terri while a full trial is conducted in federal court flouts the clear intent of Congress in passing the Federal Terri’s Law.  It is based on a clear legal error which must immediately be reversed by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.  

            The federal law explicitly instructs the court, “In such a suit, the District Court shall determine de novo any claim of a violation of any right of Theresa Marie Schiavo within the scope of this Act, notwithstanding any prior State court determination and regardless of whether such a claim has previously been raised, considered, or decided in State court proceedings.”  

Despite this, Judge Whittemore’s conclusion that the Schindlers do not have a “substantial likelihood of success on the merits” and therefore are not entitled to a temporary restraining order to feed Terri is based entirely on his judgment about the adequacy and accuracy of the state court proceedings.

            There has obviously been no time even to detail for the federal court the specific constitutional and federal statutory claims the statute directs it to hear, let alone to conduct a trial.  The Senators and Representatives who crafted and voted to enact the Federal Terri’s Law repeatedly emphasized, during its consideration in Congress, that it would be inconceivable that a federal court, directed to conduct a new proceeding fully to determine Terri’s rights, would not re-insert the feeding tube for the duration of those proceedings.  The inconceivable has happened, and obviously should immediately be corrected by the appellate court. 

 

             NRLC is the nation's largest pro-life organization, with 50 state affiliates and approximately 3,000 local affiliates nationwide. NRLC works through legislation and education to protect those threatened by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and assisted suicide.  

 




Like a deer that longs for running waters so my soul longs for you, O God.

Ps 42:1
 
 



		
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