By Daniel Webster, USA Today Editorial via GOPInsight
By any definition, Terri Schiavo is alive. She has now been issued a death sentence by the courts.
"Terri's Law" was enacted in October 2003, when a disabled and brain-damaged woman was being starved to death by judicial order in Florida. Terri Schiavo had collapsed in her apartment from lack of oxygen in 1990 at age 26.
Terri had never executed a written living will. There were questions regarding whether the judges in this case had actually followed Florida law. There were differing statements given in court about her end-of-life wishes. There was conflicting medical testimony as to whether rehabilitation could help Terri. This was the climate in which Terri's Law was enacted by the Legislature and signed by the governor.
Florida citizens were justifiably concerned that an innocent, disabled Florida woman was being put to death by court order under extremely questionable and horrific circumstances. If the proceedings that led up to the execution of serial-killer Ted Bundy had been handled in the same way, Bundy's conviction would have been overturned.
Capital felons on trial for their lives in Florida are entitled to independent counsel, competent representation, trial by jury and automatic review of their death-penalty case by the Florida Supreme Court. Yet Terri, utterly innocent of any wrongdoing, received none of these protections.
Additionally, had Bundy been ordered to die slowly by starvation and dehydration (as Terri likely will), his penalty would assuredly have been reversed by the courts as "cruel and unusual" punishment.
The governor has the ability, in a criminal death sentence, to grant clemency. The Legislature only sought to extend the same protection to Terri Schiavo.
The legislative and executive branches have equally important roles to play in protecting the handicapped. The state's duty is to preserve life, not arbitrarily end it.
Florida State Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, was sponsor of the "Terri's Law" legislation.
