Terri Schiavo revisited

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, March 30th.

You’re listening to WORLD Radio. We’re so glad you are! Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Lawless, Season Two.

Tomorrow marks eighteen years since the death of Terri Schiavo. You may remember her story as a bitter legal battle over a brain damaged young woman’s right to live or right to die. If you listened to Season One of Lawless, you heard the start of this story. But only the start.

REICHARD: On one side, a husband who says he’s trying to fulfill his wife’s wishes. His attorney champions law and reason, but also claims to commune with a higher power through his own spiritual awakening.

On the other side, a family who wants to save their daughter. Backing them: a host of supporters, including civil rights attorneys, doctors, and disability groups, also activists willing to do just about anything to keep Terri alive. Legally or otherwise.

MYRNA: In Season Two, we’re finishing our deep-dive into Terri’s story. You’ll hear from WORLD Magazine executive editor Lynn Vincent and WORLD Radio features editor Anna Johansen Brown. Here’s a preview

LYNN VINCENT: It’s October 15th, 2003. The Schindler family is fighting through a thicket of media mics and cameras. Reporters walk backwards in front of them, shoving mics in the Schindlers’ faces, shouting questions.

They want to know how Terri Schiavo’s family scored a meeting with the governor of Florida, Jeb Bush.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: The Schiavo case is rolling towards its 11th year, and tempers show no signs of cooling down. Each side is fighting hard.

FELOS: The level of acrimony, hurled at Mr. Schiavo, I mean, he's been called a murderer, a wife abuser.

MIKE TOMARRO: I don't think he wants her to ever be able to speak again. I think he might be afraid of what she might say.

ANNA: Michael Schiavo believes his wife, Terri, would never want to live like this: Severely brain injured, dependent on a feeding tube for food and water. He wants to remove her feeding tube and let her die.

Terri’s family says they don’t care that she can’t speak or walk. They just want to take care of their daughter.

BRODERSEN: You know, this was still all life and death. And Michael was clearly in their mind, I assume, the prince of darkness, and trust for the judicial process was kind of at an all time low. And everybody was deep in trauma.

LYNN: But Michael keeps winning in court. A judge has ruled that Terri’s feeding tube will come out again. The Schindlers keep appealing, but they’re constantly terrified that their efforts won’t be enough. That’s why they pile into a Toyota forerunner and speed from Pinellas Park, Florida, to Plant City for a hastily arranged meeting with the governor.

After a few minutes of awkward small talk, Terri’s sister Suzanne Schindler breaks in with a question. Terri’s mother Mary remembers the moment vividly.

MARY: She was so serious. And she said, “Governor Bush, can I ask you a question?” He said, “Sure.” She says, “Don’t you know, anybody, anybody in office that could help you? You know, or help us?” But everybody started laughing. Even Governor Bush, I mean, he said, he says I think I do you know. She didn’t even realize what she said. It was his brother that was president of the United States! And he just and he said, “I think I'll try to do something Suzanne,” you know, and he was just he was so nice.

LYNN: Nice. But the governor doesn’t promise any specific course of action. The truth is, he doesn’t know what else he can legally do.

The case has been caught in a loop of judicial rulings, appeals, and last-minute interventions. It feels like a black hole never ending. No way out.

ANNA: Back in April of 2001, the Schindlers’ attorneys thought they might have struck gold.

SHOOK: I was the first girl Michael Schiavo dated.

ANNA: One of Michael’s old girlfriends, Cyndi Shook, steps forward with what could be new evidence. Cyndi says that Michael isn’t who he appears to be.

In a deposition, she tells the Schindlers’ lawyers that she’s afraid of Michael. After they broke up, she kept seeing him following her in traffic. It went on for months, even when she tried to lose him.

CYNDI: [ACTOR] One time when he was behind me in traffic, he got next to me in a—on a two-lane going the same way.

ANNA: That’s not Cyndi’s real voice, but those are her words, verbatim from a deposition transcript.

CYNDI: [ACTOR] and he changed lanes basically right on top of where I was at, and I had to swerve not to be hit. I had to swerve off the road.

The deposition isn’t enough evidence on its own. But the Schindlers’ attorneys are also collecting evidence from doctors about Terri’s condition.

CRANFORD: Look over here, Terri. Terri there you go. Can you follow that Terri? There you go.

LYNN: In October of 2002, five doctors present testimony to the court. They’ve each examined Terri and come to their own conclusions about her condition, and how much brain function she really has. One doctor, William Hammesfahr, testifies that Terri has a very stiff neck, maybe a spinal cord injury, too.

He tells the court he’s only ever felt a neck like that once before: In an attempted strangulation case. That testimony shocks the court and the Schindlers. Suddenly, all their fears about Michael grow even darker. Had he been behind Terri’s brain damage all those years ago?

When Michael’s friend and former boss, Dan Greico, hears about the allegations, he’s furious.

GRIECO: I was livid. I was livid because that was fake. There was no way that Michael abused her in any way. Just absolutely no way.

ANNA: As the case grinds on, the Schindlers keep ramping up their publicity. Any way they can get the word out to as many people as possible, get public opinion on their side, recruit allies anywhere and everywhere. And it seems like it’s working. The governor is involved. US legislators are taking notice. Even the Pope is giving speeches full of indirect references to Terri’s case.

But in the spring of 2005, it seems like even that firestorm of attention might be too little, too late.

MARY: Every morning that I woke up, I said, “God, nobody’s going to take a disabled person’s feeding tube away and kill her.”

But On March 18, by order of the court, Terri’s feeding tube is removed for a third time.

ANNA: The Schindlers feel that the judicial system has failed them. What if there aren’t any other rabbits to pull out of this hat?

DAVID GIBBS: Everybody had pretty much said it was done. And he was like, Is there anything that you can do?

LYNN: That’s attorney David Gibbs. In 2003, Bob Schindler had come to him as a last-ditch legal effort.

GIBBS: And I said, Well, we’ll look at it looks really tough from a legal perspective. And, and Bob was very much like, you know, David, do everything you can to save my girl. But he said, if they end up killing my daughter, will you help me make sure that everybody knows what happened?

LYNN: Now, in 2005, Gibbs knows that the courts are a dead end. The Schindlers have exhausted every legal option. But maybe, just maybe, legislation might work.

On Palm Sunday, members of the US Congress debate a bill meant to keep Terri alive at least long enough to review her case from the beginning. But bill has a number of holdouts.

WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: We make laws, and we uphold the law, and we swore to protect the Constitution. And we are thumbing our nose at the Constitution if this goes forward.

LYNN: When it comes to a vote, though, surprising allies join the Schindlers’ cause: Prominent liberal lawmakers like Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton. The bill passes. But will it be enough to save Terri? It still needs a judge to give one last green light.

ANNA: Meanwhile, Terri is starving. And the dehydration is worse. Bobby Schindler describes how hard it is to see Terri fading.

BOBBY: The sunken eyes, her teeth, her teeth were protruding because her face was shrinking. Because it was, it was getting so dehydrated. Her eyes started bleeding. Her lips were terribly chapped, her skin started to chap. It started turning different shades like it was. I remember being yellowish or bluish, her skin.

MUSIC

ANNA: It’s Holy Week, the days leading up to Easter. The celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection.

On March 30th, 2005, Terri enters her 12th day without food or water. Terri’s brother in law, Michael Vitadamo, remembers thinking, there’s still hope.

VITADAMO: You know, they've reinserted it before. So, you know, hang in there, girl, you know, you're going to be okay. Terri, you know, we're trying to help you I can remember Bob saying: “We’re helping you Terri. We’re here.” She just started to decline. It was pretty quick.

REICHARD: Lawless Season 2 will drop on May 4th. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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