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Report: Jeb Bush Tried to Intervene but BACKED DOWN

The Sydney Daily Herald and Miami Herald are reporting that Gov. Jeb Bush tried to seize Terri Schiavo but abandoned the effort when it became clear that local law enforcement officers would resist his efforts. The article states (registration required):

Sydney DLaw agencies controlled by Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the brother of US President George Bush, were on their way to seize Terri Schiavo and have her feeding tube reinserted.
But they backed off when local police said they would enforce a judge's ruling allowing the brain-damaged women to die, The Miami Herald has revealed.

Soon after a judge ordered that Mrs Schiavo not be removed from a hospice, a team of Florida state law enforcement agents planned to rescue her on the orders of Mr Bush, the paper said.

But they did not go ahead after it became clear they would have to confront local police outside the Florida hospice that has become a flashpoint in the worldwide debate on euthanasia.

"We told them that unless they had the judge with them when they came, they were not going to get in," a source with the local police told the paper.

[snip]

"The Florida Department of Law Enforcement called to say they were en route to the scene," said an official with the city police, who requested anonymity. "When the Sheriff's Department, and our department, told them they could not enforce their order, they backed off."

The averted stand-off between local police and state forces underscores the intense emotion and murky legal terrain that the Schiavo case has created.

HT: Pat Campbell who quotes Michael Schiavo Attorney George Felos as commenting, "Frankly, I don't believe when they filed their notice of appeal they realized that that gave them an automatic stay. When we filed our motion to vacate the automatic stay ..."

Source: BlogsforTerri

Posted by tim at March 26, 2005 2:21 PM

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