Like spousal abuse, malpractice happens.

Medical malpractice.

Legal malpractice.

Even judicial malpractice.

Physicians and lawyers can be sued for their malpractice.

Judges have immunity.

Terri Schiavo is about to be starved to death not only because her husband Michael craves that, but also because Judge George W. Greer committed judicial malpractice in ordering that Terri be starved to death without clear and convincing evidence that would be Terri’s wish.

To live, Terri needs to receive food and water by tube.

Judge Greer ruled after a trial that clear and convincing evidence existed to support Michael Schiavo’s claim that Terri wished not to be kept alive on artificial life support.

The “clear and convincing” evidentiary standard was established by the United States  Supreme Court in Crusan v. Director, MDH, 497 U.S. 261 (1990).

A majority held that there is a constitutional right to reject artificially provided nutrition and hydration but that a state may require clear and convincing evidence in the case of an incompetent patient that the rejection of nutrition and hydration conforms to the patient’s wishes while competent.

IN Terri’s case, there was not a notarized document expressing any such wish.

Or a signed document.

Or even an unsigned document.

Or a video tape.

Or an audio tape.

Or the testimony of anyone other than Michael Schiavo or his relatives.

Just testimony from Michael Schiavo and members of his family that Terri had expressed that wish orally.

Nearly 10 years after the incident that left Terri severely brain-damaged--and after he had received nearly $1.7 million from medical malpractice claims, Michael Schiavo supposedly had recalled an alleged oral statement of Terri made 15 years earlier, in 1984.

Did Michael refund to the insurance company monies paid on the mistaken belief that Terri wanted to live instead of to commit suicide?

I doubt it.

Florida law prohibits self-serving hearsay testimony.

But not Judge Greer.

He found the Schiavo family’s self-serving testimony reliable.

Judge Greer ruled that there was “clear and convincing evidence” that Terri would not want to be kept alive by assisted feeding and he issued an order in 2000 to withdraw the tube by which she is fed three times a day.

Even if there was not conflicting testimony, the “evidence” offered by Michael Schiavo should have been ruled inadequate to warrant death by starvation (or any unnatural means).

But, Judge Greer recently ordered that Terri’s feeding tube be removed at 1 PM, on March 18.

Thereafter, Terry will suffer enormously until she dies.

If Judge Greer had ordered that a murderer be executed that way, the outrage against such cruel and unusual punishment would shake the walls of his courtroom.

Civil libertarians would object vociferously.

And higher judicial authority would modify Judge Greer’s barbaric order to provide for a less horrific death, say, death by lethal objection.

At the least.

Judge Greer not only ordered a horrendous death for Terri, but also effectively sentenced Terri to death without giving Terri a jury trial.

And in the absence of clear and convincing evidence, much less proof beyond a reasonable doubt, that Terri wanted to be starved to death under the tragic (but not terminal) circumstances in which Terri finds herself.

If that’s no judicial malpractice, what is?

A mass murderer has a right to be tried by a jury.

And the jury must unanimously agree that he or she is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Terri Schiavo never waived her right to a jury trial.

And letting the person demanding her death waive it for her would be a travesty of justice.

Judge Greer did not put the question of whether or not Terri had expressed a desire to be starved to death if she was severely brain-damaged to a jury.

He decided that himself.

Without the aid of a jury.

Diane Meyer’s testimony should have been decisive.

Ms. Meyer related how she and Terri, then recent high school graduates, had just seen a television movie about Karen Ann Quinlan, who had been in a coma since collapsing six years earlier and was the subject of a bitter court battle over her parents' decision to take her off a respirator.

Meyer admitted that she told a cruel joke about Quinlan, nothing of which to be proud.

And that it set the normally mild-mannered Terri off.

"She went down my throat about this joke, that it was inappropriate," Ms. Meyer said.

Ms. Meyer recalled Terri saying she wondered how the doctors and lawyers could possibly know what Ms. Quinlan was really feeling or what she would want.

"Where there's life, there's hope," Ms. Meyer testified Terri said.

Judge Greer rejected this compelling testimony of Ms. Meyer, and instead accepted the highly self-interested and suspect testimony of Michael Schiavo and his brother and sister-in-law as “clear and convincing.”

Why?

Judge Greer himself explained that Ms. Meyer’s testimony was contradicted by a matter of indisputable fact: the date of Karen Ann Quinlan’s death.

Judge Greer was partly right and partly wrong.

David Gibb, an attorney for the parents of Terri Schiavo, issued this straightforward statement explaining what happened and how he had given Judge Greer to correct himself:

"In our motion we pointed out that in Judge Greer's February 2000 Order authorizing Terri's death, he made a clear mistake by discounting the testimony of Terri's friend, Diane Meyer. Diane testified that in 1982 Terri told her she did not agree with the decision by Karen Ann Quinlan's parents to take their daughter off life support. Judge Greer, although initially finding Diane's testimony 'believable,' finally concluded that this conversation could not have occurred in 1982. Judge Greer said in his 2000 Order that he was 'mystified' about Diane Meyer's use of present tense verbs in relating her conversation with Terri. Therefore, he concluded that Terri's statements to Diane did not indicate end-of-life wishes made as an adult, because Terri would only have been 11 or 12 years old in 1976, the year he believed Karen Ann Quinlan had died.

"But it was not Diane Meyer who was mistaken; it was Judge Greer. Karen Ann Quinlan did not die until 1985, some 9 years after her court case ended and her respirator was removed. Apparently, none of the attorneys working on the case in 2000 noticed the mistake in dates. No one told Judge Greer that Karen Ann Quinlan was alive in 1982, making it entirely appropriate for Diane and Terri to discuss her situation in the present tense.

"A Florida attorney pointed out the mistake to me last week. As an officer of the court, I feel obliged to provide this information to Judge Greer in the form of a motion asking him to declare that, in fact, a mistake in dates had erroneously influenced his decision in 2000.

"If Judge Greer's 2000 Order authorizing Michael Schiavo to end his wife's life were a criminal death sentence, Terri would be entitled to a new trial on the basis of reversible error. Although Terri is not a criminal, she is still under a court-imposed death order, an order that is the equivalent of a death penalty. Therefore, we are asking Judge Greer to correct his mistake by either reversing his 2000 Order or conducting a new trial."

Karen Ann Quinlan’s death is a matter of indisputable fact.

There is an official death certificate that Judge Greer could have obtained.

Instead, Judge Greer trusted his own recollection.

And he recollected wrongly.

Ms. Meyer’s testimony was confirmed, not contradicted, by the actual date of Ms. Quinlan’s death.

And Terri Schiavo should not die because Judge Greer’s recollection was faulty and his failure to own up to it.

Judge Greer took judicial notice of a key “fact” that was NOT a fact.

Judge Greer’s mistake was not realized by the lawyers for Terri’s family until recently.

But, Terri is still alive, and there is time for Judge Greer to correct his mistake.

And not to rely on the failure of Terri’s family’s lawyers to mention it sooner.

If he doesn’t, he’s unfit for any public service, much less a judicial position.

To date, Judge Greer has not corrected his mistake.

Therefore, the new United States Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, should be interceding for Terry Schiavo, in the name of the United States of America, for the sake of all Americans and their posterity.

Stephen Vincent Benet’s short story, “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” explains why the Schiavo case is pending in Florida instead of New Hampshire and emphasized both the triumph of humanity over legal technicality and the importance of a jury as a check against a hanging judge.

Even a jury of sinners who had gone to hell.

Perhaps Attorney General Gonzales could read it to Judge Greer.

Set forth below is the essence of the story.

Terri Schiavo made a bad bargain, in marrying Michael Schiavo, but she is hardly as culpable as Jabez Stone was, and she should not be starved to death for it.

Jabez Stone kept his soul.

Terri Schiavo should keep her life.

For inspiration, Attorney General Gonzales should look to Daniel Webster.

Lest he end up in hell, Judge Greer should profit from the example of Judge Hathorne.

Michael Schiavo and his lawyer should note that the devil was thwarted.

Jabez Stone, an unlucky man, sold his soul to the Devil, and the Devil came to collect.

Fortunately for Jabez, he turned to Daniel Webster, a superb orator.

When the devil reminded Jabez that he would be collecting soon, Jabez expressed doubt and the devil was distressed.

Benet described the encounter this way:

"’Why, yes,’ said Jabez Stone.  ‘This being the USA and me always having been a religious man.’  He cleared his throat and got bolder.  ‘Yes, sir,’ he said, ‘I'm beginning to have considerable doubts as to that mortgage holding in court.’

"’There's courts and courts,’ said the [devil], clicking his teeth.  ‘Still, we might as well have a look at the original document.’  And he hauled out a big black pocketbook, full of papers.  ‘Sherwin, Slater, Stevens, Stone,’ he muttered.  ‘I, Jabez Stone, for a term of seven years --------- Oh, it's quite in order, I think.’

“But Jabez Stone wasn't listening, for he saw something else flutter out of the black pocketbook.  It was something that looked like a moth, but it wasn't a moth.  And as Jabez Stone stared at it, it seemed to speak to him in a small sort of piping voice, terrible small and thin, but terrible human.  ‘Neighbor Stone!’  it squeaked.  ‘Neighbor Stone!  Help me! For heaven's sake, help me!’

“But before Jabez Stone could stir hand or foot, the stranger whipped out a big bandanna handkerchief, caught the creature in it, just like a butterfly, and started tying up the ends of the bandanna.

"’Sorry for the interruption,’ he said, ‘As I was saying -----‘

“But Jabez Stone was shaking all over like a scared horse.

"’That's Miser Stevens' voice!’ he said, in a croak. ‘And you've got him in your handkerchief!’

“The [devil] looked a little embarrassed.

"’Yes, I really should have transferred him to the collecting box,’ he said with a simper, ‘but there were some rather unusual specimens there and I didn't want them crowded. Well, well, these little contretemps will occur.’

"’I don't know what you mean by contertan,’ said Jabez Stone, ‘but that was Miser Stevens' voice! And he ain't dead! You can't tell me he is! He was just as spry and mean as a woodchuck, Tuesday!’

"’In the midst of life -----‘ said the [devil], kind of pious. ‘Listen!’ Then a bell began to toll in the valley and Jabez Stone listened, with the sweat running down his face. For he knew it was tolled for Miser Stevens and that he was dead.

"’These long-standing accounts,’ said the stranger with a sigh; ‘one really hates to close them. But business is business.’

“He still had the bandanna in his hand, and Jabez Stone felt sick as he saw the cloth struggle and flutter.

"’Are they all as small as that?’ he asked hoarsely.

"’Small?’ said the stranger. ‘Oh, I see what you mean. Why, they vary."

The encounter ended with Jabez begging and praying and finally getting “a three years' extension, with conditions.”

With time running out again, Jabez hitched up his horse and went to see Daniel Webster, an old neighbor.

Daniel Webster cared more about people than keeping on schedule.

“It was early in the morning when [Jabez] got to Marshfield, but Dan'l was up already, talking Latin to the farmhands and wrestling with the ram, Goliath, and trying out a new trotter and working up speeches to make against John C. Calhoun. But when he heard a New Hampshireman had come to see him, he dropped everything else he was doing, for that was Dan'l's way. He gave Jabez Stone a breakfast that five men couldn't eat, went into the living history of every man and woman in Cross Corners, and finally asked him how he could serve him.

“Jabez Stone allowed that is was a kind of mortgage case.

"’Well, I haven't pleaded a mortgage case in a long time, and I don't generally plead now, except before the Supreme Court,’ said Dan'l, ‘but if I can, I'll help you.’

"’Then I've got hope for the first time in ten years,’ said Jabez Stone, and told him the details.”

Where there’s life, there is hope.

“Dan'l walked up and down as he listened, hands behind his back, now and then asking a question, now and then plunging his eyes at the floor, as if they'd bore through it like gimlets. When Jabez Stone had finished, Dan'l puffed out his cheeks and blew. Then he turned to Jabez Stone and a smile broke over his face like the sunrise over Monadncock.

"’You've certainly given yourself the devil's own row to hoe, Neighbor Stone,’ he said, ‘but I'll take your case.’

"’You'll take it?’ said Jabez Stone, hardly daring to believe.

"’Yes,’ said Dan'l Webster. ‘I've got about seventy-five other things to do and the Missouri Compromise to straighten out, but I'll take your case. For if two New Hampshiremen aren't a match for the devil, we might as well give the country back to the Indians.’

Daniel and Jabez “wait[ed] for the [devil], with a jug on the table between them and a bright fire on the hearth----the [devil] being scheduled to show up on the stroke of midnight, according to specifications.

At 11:30 PM, Jabez “reached over and grabbed Dan'l Webster by the arm.”

"’Mr. Webster, Mr. Webster!’ he said, and his voice was shaking with fear and a desperate courage. ‘For heaven's sake, Mr. Webster, harness your horses and get away from this place while you can!’

"’You've brought me a long way, neighbor, to tell me you don't like my company,’ said Dan'l Webster, quite peaceable, pulling at the jug.

"’Miserable wretch that I am!’ groaned Jabez Stone. ‘I've brought you a devilish way, and now I see my folly. Let him take me if he wills. I don't hanker after it, I must say, but I can stand it. But you're the Union's stay and New Hampshire's pride! He mustn't get you, Mr. Webster! He mustn't get you!’

“Dan'l Webster looked at the distracted man, all gray and shaking in the firelight, and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"’I'm obliged to you, Neighbor Stone,’ he said gently. "’It's kindly thought of. But there's a jug on the table and a case in hand. And I never left a jug or a case half finished in my life.’

“And just at that moment there was a sharp rap on the door.

"’Ah,’ said Dan'l Webster, very coolly, ‘I thought your clock was a trifle slow, Neighbor Stone.’ He stepped to the door and opened it. ‘Come in!’ he said.

“The [devil] came in --- very dark and tall he looked in the firelight. He was carrying a box under his arm ---- a black, japanned box with little air holes in the lid. At the sight of the box, Jabez Stone gave a low cry and shrank into a corner of the room.

"’Mr. Webster, I presume,’ said the [devil], very polite, but with his eyes glowing like a fox's deep in the woods.

"’Attorney of record for Jabez Stone,’ he said Dan'l Webster, but his eyes were glowing too. ‘Might I ask your name?’

"’I've gone by a good many,’ said the stranger carelessly. ‘Perhaps Scratch will do for the evening. I'm often called that in these regions.’

“Then he sat down at the table and poured himself a drink from the jug. The liquor was cold in the jug, but it came steaming into the glass.

"’And now,’ said the stranger, smiling and showing his teeth, ‘I shall call upon you, as a law-abiding citizen, to assist me in taking possession of my property.’

“Well, with that the argument began ---- and it went hot and heavy. At first, Jabez Stone had a flicker of hope, but when he saw Dan'l Webster being forced back at point after point, he just scrunched in his corner, with his eyes on that japanned box. For there wasn't any doubt as to the deed or the signature --- that was the worst of it. Dan'l Webster twisted and turned and thumped his fist on the table, but he couldn't get away from that. He offered to compromise the case; the [devil] wouldn't hear of it. He pointed out the property had increased in value, and state senators ought to be worth more; the [devil] stuck to the letter of the law. He was a great lawyer, Dan'l Webster, but we know who's the King of Lawyers, as the Good Book tells us, and it seemed as if, for the first time, Dan'l Webster had met his match.

“Finally, the [devil] yawned a little. ‘Your spirited efforts on behalf of your client do you credit, Mr. Webster,’ he said, ‘but if you have no more arguments to adduce, I'm rather pressed for time’ ----- and Jabez Stone shuddered.

“Dan'l Webster's brow looked dark as a thundercloud.

"’Pressed or not, you shall not have this man!’ he thundered. ‘Mr. Stone is an American citizen, and no American citizen may be forced into the service of a foreign prince. We fought England for that in '12 and we'll fight all hell for it again!’

"’Foreign?’ said the stranger. ‘And who call me a foreigner?’

"’Well, I never yet heard of the dev----of your claiming American citizenship,’ said Dan'l Webster with surprise.

"’And who with better right?’ said the stranger, with one of his terrible smiles. ‘When the first wrong was done to the first Indian, I was there. When the first slaver put out for the Congo, I stood on her deck. Am I not in your books and stories and beliefs, from the first settlements on? Am I not spoken of, still, in every church in New England? 'Tis true the North claims me for a Southerner and the South for a Northerner, but I am neither. I am merely an honest American like yourself ---- and of the best descent --- for, to tell the truth, Mr. Webster, though I don't like to boast of it, my name is older in this country than yours.’

"’Aha!’ said Dan'l Webster, with the veins standing out in his forehead. ‘Then I stand on the Constitution! I demand a trial for my client!’

"’The case is hardly one for an ordinary court,’ said the stranger, his eyes flickering. ‘And, indeed, the lateness of the hour ------‘

"’Let it be any court you choose, so it is an American judge and an American jury!" said Dan'l Webster in his pride. ‘Let it be the quick or the dead; I'll abide the issue!’

"’You have said it," said the [devil], and pointed his finger at the door. And with that, and all of a sudden, there was a rushing of wind outside and a noise of footsteps. They came, clear and distinct, through the night. And yet, they were not like the footsteps of living men.

"’In God's name, who comes by so late?’ cried Jabez Stone, in an ague of fear.

"’The jury Mr. Webster demands,’ said the stranger, sipping at his boiling glass. ‘You must pardon the rough appearance of one or two; they will have come a long way’"

“And with that the fire burned blue and the door blew open and twelve men entered, one by one.

“If Jabez Stone had been sick with terror before, he was blind with terror now. For there was Walter Butler, the Loyalist, who spread fire and horror through the Mohawk Valley in the times of the Revolution; and there was Simon Girty, the renegade, who saw white men burned at the stake and whooped with the Indians to see them burn. His eyes were green, like a catamount's, and the stains on his hunting shirt did not come from the blood of the deer. King Philip was there, wild and proud as he had been in life, with the great gash in his head that gave him his death wound, and cruel Governor Dale, who broke men on the wheel. There was Morton of Merry Mount, who so vexed the Plymouth Colony, with his flushed, loose, handsome face and his hate of the godly. There was Teach, the bloody pirate, with his black beard curling on his breast. The Reverend John Smeet, with his strangler's hands and his Geneva gown, walked as daintily as he had to the gallows. The red print of the rope was still around his neck, but he carried a perfumed handkerchief in one hand. One and all, they came into the room with the fires of hell still upon them, and the stranger named their names and their deeds as they came, till the tale of twelve was told. Yet the stranger had told the truth --- they had all played a part in America.

"’Are you satisfied with the jury, Mr. Webster?’ said the stranger mockingly, when they had taken their places.

“The sweat stood upon Dan'l Webster's brow, but his voice was clear.

"’Quite satisfied,’ he said. ‘Though I miss General Arnold from the company.’

"’Benedict Arnold is engaged upon other business,’ said the [devil], with a glower. ‘Ah, you asked for justice, I believe.’

“He pointed his finger once more, and a tall man, soberly clad in Puritan garb, with the burning gaze of the fanatic, stalked into the room and took his judge's place.

"’Justice Hathorne is a jurist of experience," said the [devil]. ‘He presided at certain witch trials once held in Salem. There were others who repented of the business later, but not he.’

"’Repent of such notable wonders and undertakings?’ said the stern old justice. ‘Nay, hang them ---- hang them all!’ And he muttered to himself in a way that struck ice into the soul of Jabez Stone.

“Then the trial began, and, as you might expect, it didn't look anyways good for the defense. And Jabez Stone didn't make much of witness in his own behalf. He took one look at Simon Girty and screeched, and they had to put him back in his corner in a kind of swoon.

“It didn't halt the trial, though; the trial went on, as trials do. Dan'l Webster had faced some hard juries and hanging judges in his time, but this was the hardest he'd ever faced, and he knew it. They sat there with a kind of glitter in their eyes, and the stranger's smooth voice went on and on. Every time he'd raise an objection, it'd be ‘Objection sustained,’ but whenever Dan'l objected, it'd be ‘Objection denied.’ Well, you couldn't expect fair play from a fellow like this Mr. Scratch.

“It got to Dan'l in the end, and he began to heat, like iron in the forge. When he got up to speak he was going to flay that stranger with every trick known to the law, and the judge and jury too. He didn't care if it was contempt of court or what would happen to him for it. He didn't care any more what happened to Jabez Stone. He just got madder and madder, thinking of what he'd say. And yet, curiously enough, the more he thought about it, the less he was able to arrange his speech in his mind.

“Till, finally, it was time for him to get up on his feet, and he did so, all ready to bust out with lightning and denunciations. But before he started he looked over the judge and jury for a moment, such being his custom. And he noticed the glitter in their eyes was twice as strong as before, and they all leaned forward. Like hounds just before they get the fox, they thickened as he watched them. Then he saw what he'd been about to do, and he wiped his forehead, as a man might who's just escaped falling into a pit in the dark.

“For it was him they'd come for, not only Jabez Stone. He read it in the glitter of their eyes and in the way the stranger hid his mouth with one hand. And if he fought them with their own weapons, he'd fall into their power; he knew that, though he couldn't have told you how. It was his own anger and horror that burned in their eyes; and he'd have to wipe that out or the case was lost. He stood there for a moment, his black eyes burning like anthracite. And then he began to speak.

“He started off in a low voice, though you could hear every word.  They say he could call on the harps of the blessed when he chose.  And this was just as simple and easy as a man could talk.  But he didn't start out by condemning or reviling.  He was talking about the things that make a country a country, and a man a man.

“And he began with the simple things that everybody's known and felt ---- the freshness of a fine morning when you're young, and the taste of food when you're hungry, and the new day that's every day when you're a child.  He took them up and he turned them in his hands.  They were good things for any man.  But without freedom, they sickened.  And when he talked of those enslaved, and the sorrows of slavery, his voice got like a big bell.  He talked of the early days of America and the men who had made those days.  It wasn't a spread-eagle speech, but he made you see it.  He admitted all the wrong that had ever been done.  But he showed how, out of the wrong and the right, the suffering and the starvations, something new had come.  And everybody had played a part in it, even the traitors.

“Then he turned to Jabez Stone and showed him as he was ---- an ordinary man who'd had hard luck and wanted to change it.  And, because he'd wanted to change it, now he was going to be punished for all eternity.  And yet there was good in Jabez Stone, and he showed that good.  He was hard and mean, in some ways, but he was a man.  There was sadness in being a man, but it was a proud thing too.  And he showed what the pride of it was till you couldn't help feeling it.  Yes, even in hell, if a man was a man, you'd know it.  and he wasn't pleading for any one person any more, though his voice rang like an organ.  He was telling the story and the failures and the endless journey of mankind.  They got tricked and trapped and bamboozled, but it was a great journey.  And no demon that was ever foaled could know the inwardness of it ---- it took a man to do that.

“The fire began to die on the hearth and the wind before morning to blow.  The light was getting gray in the room when Dan'l Webster finished.  And his words came back at the end to New Hampshire ground, and the one spot of land that each man loves and clings to.  He painted a picture of that, and to each one of that jury he spoke of things long forgotten.  For his voice could search the heart, and that was his gift and his strength.  And to one, his voice was like the forest and its secrecy, and to another like the sea and the storms of the sea; and one heard the cry of his lost nation in it, and another saw a little harmless scene he hadn't remembered for years.  But each saw something.  And when Dan'l Webster finished he didn't know whether or not he'd saved Jabez Stone. But he knew he'd done a miracle.  For the glitter was gone from the eyes of the judge and jury, and, for the moment, they were men again, and knew they were men.

"’The defense rests,’ said Dan'l Webster, and stood there like a mountain.  His ears were still ringing with his speech, and he didn't hear anything else till he heard Judge Hathorne say, ‘The jury will retire to consider its verdict.’

“Walter Butler rose in his place and his face had a dark, gay pride on it.

"’The jury has considered its verdict,’ he said, and looked the stranger full in the eye.  ‘We find for the defendant, Jabez Stone.’

“With that, the smile left the [devil]'s face, but Walter Butler did not flinch.

"’Perhaps 'tis not strictly in accordance with the evidence,’ he said, ‘but even the damned may salute the eloquence of Mr. Webster.’

“With that, the long crow of a rooster split the gray morning sky, and judge and jury were gone from the room like a puff of smoke and as if they had never been there.  The [devil] turned to Dan'l Webster, smiling wryly.

"’Major Butler was always a bold man,’ he said.  ‘I had not thought him quite so bold.  Nevertheless, my congratulations, as between two gentlemen.’

"’I'll have that paper first, if you please,’ said Dan'l Webster, and he took it and tore it into four pieces.  It was queerly warm to the touch.  ‘And now,’ he said, ‘I'll have you!’  and his hand came down like a bear trap on the stranger's arm.  For he knew that once you bested anybody like Mr. Scratch in fair fight, his power on you was gone.  And he could see that Mr. Scratch knew it too.

“The stranger twisted and wriggled, but he couldn't get out of that grip.  ‘Come, come, Mr. Webster,’ he said, smilingly palely.  ‘This sort of thing is ridic----ouch!----is ridiculous.  If you're worried about the costs of the case, naturally, I'd be glad to pay-----‘

"’And so you shall!’ said Dan'l Webster, shaking him till his teeth rattled.  ‘For you'll sit right down at that table and draw up a document, promising never to bother Jabez Stone nor his heirs or assigns nor any other New Hampshireman till doomsday!  For any hades we want to raise in this state, we can raise ourselves, without assistance from strangers.’

"’Ouch!’ said the [devil].  ‘Ouch! Well, they never did run very big to the barrel, but --- ouch!----I agree!’

“So he sat down and drew up the document.  But Dan'l Webster kept his hand on his coat collar all the time.

"’And, now, may I go?’ said the [devil], quite humble, when Dan'l'd seen the document was in proper and legal form.

"’Go?’ said Dan'l, giving him another shake.  ‘I'm still trying to figure out what I'll do with you.  For you've settled the costs of the case, but you haven't settled with me.  I think I'll take you back to Marshfield,’ he said, kind of reflective.  ‘I've got a ram there named Goliath that can butt through an iron door.  I'd kind of like to turn you loose in his field and see what he'd do.’

“Well, with that the [devil] began to beg and to plead.  And he begged and he pled so humble that finally Dan'l, who was naturally kindhearted, agreed to let him go….” 

Attorney General Gonzales, please tell hardhearted Judge Greer to remove Michael Schiavo as Terri’s legal guardian instead of removing Terri’s feeding tube and let Terri go home to her parents.

And appeal to a higher court if necessary.

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Email: GaynorMike@aol.com