Other than Vogon poetry, few things are as unpleasant as a quick swim in the fever swamps to assess the current state of Michael Schiavo. One would think, with the news yesterday (completely and understandably overshadowed by the events in London) that Governor Bush is dropping the investigation into the ‘timeline,’ that it would be time for all of this to be put to rest.
Not so fast- Mark Furhman has a book to sell:
Fuhrman continued, “There are so many things that Michael Schiavo can’t seem to answer. In a time when you would think that you would have a memory, a videotape that you could put on play and those memories and those images would be etched in your mind forever, he couldn’t figure them out, from the first morning to this very day.
“He couldn’t even remember if they had an argument. He couldn’t remember what time he left work, couldn’t remember what time he got home, couldn’t remember if she was awake or asleep. Couldn’t remember, when he found her, if she was face up or face down. It goes on and on.”
Fuhrman also says Michael took a long time to call 911, and that may have contributed to Terri’s injuries.
It gets worse:
“I was pretty shocked with what I read, not only from a humanitarian angle from Michael Schiavo — he was completely absent of any compassion or empathy for the direct family of Terri Schiavo — but there were many questions about how she collapsed
Marcus Wellby
Does Fuhrman’s book come in anything other than a large print edition? I can’t blame the has-been for trying to make a buck, but what sort of idiots read it?
over it
You make the presumption that they can read.
It is only available on CD and cassette.
;)
jcricket
Same idiots that devour Ed Klein’s screed about Hillary. Or swear by “Swift Boat” book’s revisionist history about Kerry. Or those desperate to believe that Mcarthy wasn’t that bad and internment camps were good (see Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin).
JG
I bet my friend that keeps trying to get me to read Savage Nation will read the Furman book.
KC
We’ve all got those friends, don’t we, JG?
Rick
With these glowing reviews from what I expect are Stupid White Men, Fuhrman’s book may have much to recommend it. Michael Schiavo was sh*t-chilling cold, after all.
Yes, that again!
Cordially…
ppgaz
We live in a world of “unanswered questions” posed by people who make money off of unanswered questions.
I have one. Why did the LAPD and LA District Attorney put Mark Fuhrman, of all people, up there to represent their side in a celebrity murder case? The man is a poster boy for distrust of the police. IMO, he is singlehandedly responsible for the fact that the Simpson defense was able to try LAPD and convict them of potatoheadedness (a Class 3 Bungle), thereby opening the door for Simpson’s acquittal.
Thanks to Mark Fuhrman, at least one guilty man walks free. Thanks, Mark.
Levi
Please. Mark Furman has about as much credibility as the Schindlers – ZERO!!! That should be crystal clear by now!!!! It must suck to be a Schindler today!!!
Sojourner
I hate those guys who try to do what’s right for their wives. The bastards!
Jeff
“Thanks to Mark Fuhrman, at least one guilty man walks free.”
Actually, that would be thanks to 12 blithering idiots on the jury.
Rick
I hate those guys who try to do what’s right for their wives.
I’ll put that down as vote for honor killings. Let me make that even more clever: honor killing$
Cordially…
ppgaz
Afraid I disagree, Jeff. The only protection you have against the power of government is that the system holds the government to its own standards of conduct and evidence. When the cops are free to cut corners, do sloppy work, and are remiss in keeping their own house clean, then the accused citizen has every right to use that as a defense. LAPD and LACA screwed the pooch on the OJ case, and they got what they deserved: Acquittal of a guilty man. So be it. That’s the way it is supposed to work.
Which is worse? A guilty man free, or an innocent man in jail? I don’t really care what your answer is, because as far as I am concerned, there is only one right answer. And as long as the system is not perfect, and as long as we rightly tilt the system toward protection of the rights of the accused, then guilty men will sometimes go free.
That’s just the way it is. When it’s not that way any more, then freedom is just a marketing phrase, it no longer means anything.
As an aftertought, my casual observation of the trials and tribulations of LAPD lead me to think that it must be on the Top Ten list of the worst police departments in history. I say, screw ’em. If that’s the best they can do, just screw ’em.
Bob
When a body is retrieved from the ocean, one of the things that a coroner must check for is whether the victim had aspirated, or inhaled water into his lungs. If not, or if there is fresh water in the lungs of the victim, that is proof that the victim did not die by drowning in the ocean. There was a scene in the movie “Chinatown” with just this kind of problem of evidence.
This line of investigation is a fundamental one for any coroner. That there was no aspiration of blood by Nicole Simpson shows that the prosecution’s theory of the case against O.J. Simpson was wrong.
The prosecution claimed O.J. Simpson attacked and killed his ex-wife by cutting her throat on the steps of her condomium on the night of June 12, 1994. As he was doing this, or soon after or immediately prior to her death, he was surprised by a waiter from the Mezzaluna Restaurant, Ron Goldman, whom Simpson killed by stabbing him in the back fatally.
The prosecution’s theory fails in the deaths of both victims.
Nicole Simpson suffered a throat cut so deep that it nicked a bone in the spinal column. All major arteries and veins to and from the head were severed. She was almost completely “bled out” (most of the blood in her system was out of her) when she was found by police. Even her epiglottis, the flap of skin that covers the windpipe when someone swallows, had been cut. It was a devastating wound that could have killed her. But it wasn’t cause of her death.
There was no aspiration of blood into her lungs. Simply, she was not breathing when her throat was cut. Even if she were unconscious when her throat was cut, she would still be breathing. More telling, there was no blood found in her mouth or sinuses. If she had been alive when her throat was cut, blood would have spurted out of her neck under great pressure, some of it going into her mouth and sinuses. The wound to the epiglottis alone should have produced blood in the mouth. She had already “bled out” when her throat was cut.
The ghastly throat wound was delivered to Nicole Simpson after she had stopped breathing and bleeding. That is, she was dead.
The wound that bled out Nicole Simpson was a puncture of the right common carotid artery on the side of her neck. It wasn’t as dramatic as the throat wound, but because it was the only other potentially fatal wound that would have caused so much loss of blood, it is the only wound that could have killed her.
Ron Goldman’s cause of death has similar problems (Actually, the coroner’s reports never said which wounds caused their deaths, only which ones could have been fatal; the prosecution took the autopsies and created their theories of the murders). The wound that was supposed to have killed him was the stab in his back that cut his abdominal aorta, which carries blood from the heart to the lower torso and extremities. If that had been the death wound, Goldman’s pleural (chest) cavity would have filled up with much of the blood in his system until he weakened and the heart stopped pumping. Only about a half cup of blood (100 to 200 milliliters), or the amount that drained from his heart, was found in his chest cavity. In short, that wound, like Nicole Simpson’s throat wound, had been delivered after his death.
Goldman’s body was found in a sitting position, slumped against a tree stump. Someone would have had to have lifted up the dead Goldman in order to deliver the back wound, and then place him against the tree stump.
Goldman also had a wound on the side of the neck that punctured his carotid artery, just like Nicole.
Neither of the victims’ wounds on the sides of their necks, the only wounds which could have killed them, would have produced death immediately. The victims could have continued to struggle, could have moved, could have vocalized shouts for help, with the fatal wound at the side of their necks.
Even if both victims had immediately gone into shock, it would have taken time for them to bleed to death, somewhere from five to ten minutes. This would require the killer to wait around the crime scene of his double homicide for precious minutes until both victims had bled to death, and then deliver ghastly but meaningless wounds to the dead bodies.
The autopsies do not make sense in the context of the crime scene, and they do not fit the prosecution’s theory of the case or any imagined theory of a double homicide. Killers in the middle of Los Angeles do not stand around a crime scene waiting for people to bleed to death in order to inflict meaningless wounds. They don’t lift up a dead body to stab it in the back.
This had to have been evident to the coroner when the bodies were first examined.
Dr. Irwin Golden, the coroner who examined the two victims, was nervous when he testified at a pre-trial hearing. By the time of the trial the prosecution replaced him with another doctor in the coroner’s office.
Did O.J. kill those people? Damned unlikely, considering the autopsies.
JG
Why is it any more unlikely? All you proved was that their theory of how the crime was committed was false. He still could have done it. I wouldn’t convict him if I was in the jury based on reasonable doubt but I still think he did it.
Sojourner
Let me make that even more clever: honor killing$
Do you have evidence for this or are you simply pulling it out of your ass?
Jim Henley
One of the problems with the case against Michael Schiavo has been the lack of any evidence. Fortunately, Mark Fuhrman is an EXPERT when it comes to, er, PRODUCING evidence.
Bob
JG, absolutely. That’s all I proved. And I didn’t prove anything. That’s just what the evidence said. But if a prosecutor charges someone with doing a crime, it always helps to have a theory of how he possibly did it. Or at least be honest about evidence as basic as the autopsies. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we don’t know how the fuck he did it, or why he waited for ten minutes for these people to bleed to death before he did dramatic but meaningless wounds to the corpses while he was supposed to be rushing to catch a limo to the airport, but here goes…”
Rick
Soj.,
Such things pass the kidneys, not the bowels.
Yeah, I believe old Michael promised to help himself to the malpractice award. Kept his word to himself, he did. He was fortunate in his choice of attorneys, and draw in judges.
Cordially…
Sojourner
I just love baseless speculation that smears people.
Good job, Rick. Karl Rove would be very proud.
Rick
Soj.,
Durn tootin’. The Rovian Master just gave me a bonus. Baseless? I mean, ba$ele$$? That was the central question in re: Terri, the first judge’s “finding,” and Michael year$-late recall. Vouched for, of course, by a blood relative and his wife. Don’t notice the elephant in the room.
But do go on being certain he was acting in HER stated interests. Such baseless speculation…oh, dear.
Cordially…
Sojourner
Yep, I believe it, as do the majority in this country.
She had no cognitive functioning left, Michael Schiavo turned down a million dollars to hand her over to her parents, and this case was repeatedly investigated, producing not a single shred of solid evidence.
But anybody who disagrees with you must have craven intentions, right?
Get over it.
Rick
Oh, it’s hard to get over a single death, because it’s not a statistic. There was no revisiting of the first judge’s “finding,” which was all that was sought.
Yet anyone who favored that simple exercise was having Big Brother crash into the bedroom, and violating the sanctity of the marriage vows, right?
You should get over the talking points, because if everything smelled right with the first “finding,” (which, by talking point standards, had state-level Big Brother bursting into the bedroom and violate the sanctity of marriage vows) it would’ve withstood a short investigation.
The matter of Terri cognitive function was a fond and forlorn Schindler hope, repeated by her backers. But not the basis of the bi-partisan intervention. It sought a real investigation, not sham judicial CYA reflexes. Alas, that reflex held true throughout.
Would you venture a guess as to why Michael recalled Terri’s “convincing” expression only years later, and after the award. John Cole took a whack, but it was really, really weak. The only effort in that regard I’ve seen, though. Love to read yours.
Favoring a presumption for sustaining life (or mere existance) absent genuine evidence in opposition, I am, cordially…
Sojourner
Every investigation, including the latest one instigated by Jeb Bush has failed to show any evidence of foul play. Since you’re the one claiming to know something they don’t, it’s up to you to prove your case. Thus far, you have failed to provide even a hint about it. All you can manage is to cast aspirsions of greed on Michael Schiavo. Of course, the fact that he turned down a million dollars to hand her over and walked away with nothing more than the initial $250k awarded for losing his wife (which coverd his legal bills) won’t satisfy you.
You want just one more investigation. And when that investigation fails to show anything, you will demand just one more.
Your position is based on belief rather than fact. No amount of evidence (or lack of evidence) will ever change your belief. This case was thoroughly investigated. It was investigated initially when she was brought into the hospital. It was investigated again prior to the insurance award. It was investigated again when it went through the court system. Your desire for yet another investigation is insatiable. And the reality is that when that one more investigation would have failed to find anything, you would condemn it as “sham judicial CYA reflexes”.
It’s a shame that you don’t show the same passion for the 18,000 Americans who die every year because of lack of health insurance. Those folks were clearly more than simply existing but your sanctimonious superiority fails to encompass them. And that is the real moral failing in this whole episode.
Patterico
I have one. Why did the LAPD and LA District Attorney put Mark Fuhrman, of all people, up there to represent their side in a celebrity murder case?
Stupid DA! Putting up the guy who found the glove!
Oh, and Bob? You’re an idiot.
Patterico
Oh yes, JG:
I wouldn’t convict him if I was in the jury based on reasonable doubt but I still think he did it.
You are also an idiot.
Rick
Sojourner,
It’s like I’m writing to a brick wall, as you insist on falling back on talking points not in dispute. My single allegation against the sainted Michael is also not in dispute: that his efforts to terminate Terri–his “recall” of her wishes–came only after the award. And roughly concurrent with his starting up another family.
The sham judicial CYA was just that: a refusal–joined by you and other sanctimonious federalists on convenience–to that a fresh, final look at what a single judge set in stone with his finding. From this, the ludicrous lamentations of the tottering Republic.
Your denunciations of me miss almost completely–I acknowledge that I suspect greed played a part in Michael’s late switch– because I’ve made no allegations of brutality on Michael’s part. So much for the investigations.
Nor do I blame him for starting a fresh life. I merely wish our robed masters would have simply complied with the other branch’s wish to check Greer’s homework.
But take consolation, my soulfully screen-named correspondent–the made for TV movie that likely will ensue will beatify Michael. And his whack-job attorney will be the Second Coming of Clarence Darrow. Whoops, Scopes Monkey Trial. Better forget that; make it the Second Coming of Thurgood Marshall.
And then there’s the consolation that the corporeal essence of Terri Schiavo is dust. Congratulations on a famous victory.
Cordially…