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Reverend Jesse Jackson
It's March 28, 2005, the Monday after Easter. This afternoon it'll mark a full 10 days since Terri Schiavo's had any food or water. A wide stretched limousine cruises within a block or so of hospice, then parks. A tall, distinguished looking man climbs out. He's an icon of the civil rights era and a lightning rod of contemporary politics. The Reverend Jesse Jackson. As Jackson marches up the street, Mike Mike and CB Tamara watch from their hideout in the shop across from the hospice. They're hunkered down with their sister and brother in law, Bob and Mary Schindler. From the moment he was let out at the end of the street because there were so many cars, they were not letting anybody park in there. He and his entourage of probably 15 to 20 people walked down the center of the street that, you know, now we were set because they were all there. I'm here and everything is good now. Camera operators walk backwards down the street in front of Jackson as he leads his procession right up to the Schindler's Refuge. He came into our little room there, bigger than life. I don't think he knew why he was there. Well, he came in that place and he sat down on the couch and he asked if he could pray. Remember, it was so. I don't know. He definitely had a plan for his entrance. Still, the reporters outside lap it up. Just a short while ago, the Reverend Jesse Jackson emerged after meeting with the family and various officials. He said he knows there's little likelihood Terry's feeding tube will be reinserted. But even in depth, Terri Schiavo's case serves as an important purpose for us all. He says Michael Schiavo and his brother Brian watch from inside the hospice, laughing at the scene. When an officer informs Michael that the Reverend Jesse Jackson would like to pray with him, Michael declines. He also turns down Jackson's offer to pray with Terry. So Jackson remains outside with the crowds and Bob, Mary, Mike and CB Stand by, wondering how things ever got to this point. Bob and Mary had constantly been saying that just all of the circus atmosphere is not what they intended from World Radio and the creative team that brings you the world and everything in it. This is lawless. I see a wicked man walking down a broken road I see ransomed man in the storm Trying not to fall for gold Devil's at the door trying to take control but the Lord's gonna scatter his bones. I'm New York Times best selling author and World magazine executive editor Lynn Vincent. And I'm World Radio features editor Anna Johansen Brown. Lawless is a true crime podcast that examines a frightening fact of American life, that not every crime is against the law. In season two, we're finishing our investigation of the Terri Schiav, a case that in 2005, shocked the world. This is episode six, In My Time of Dying. Police at Florida Hospice of the Suncoast have the whole place on lockdown. It's like a fortress. The Schindlers and Tamaros have to fight their way inside every time. Our family had to go through three police checkpoints to even enter Terry's room. And we had to empty out all our pockets. We couldn't take cell phones. And then there was policemen in front of Terry's room, and there were also policemen in Terry's room. We never had any alone time with Terry. I can remember walking into hospice and going through all of that degrading, you know, turn around, hold your arms up. You got anything? You know, and thinking. And I said it out loud, excuse me. We do live in America. We live in the United States of America. What is happening here? Police are on high alert for anyone trying to smuggle food or water to Terry. They talked about not giving her any ice or not giving her any water. And don't attempt to sneak any ice into the room for her or any, you know, it was terrible. You know, Michael doesn't have to deal with that. Ever since Terry's feeding tube came out, he's been living in a little room at the hospice right down the hall from Terry so he can be close to her. On March 23, Michael is watching TV with his brother Bill. Suddenly, his program is interrupted with a breaking news announcement. Florida Governor Jeb Bush held a press conference this afternoon during which he suggested that the state Department of Children and Families could invoke its right under Florida statute to provide protective services to certain vulnerable adults and apply it to the Terri Schiavo case. Government agen from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are already on their way, staging a last ditch effort to rescue Terry. Michael's blood boils. His knee is still injured from his tumble over the backyard fence as he dodged reporters. But he hobbles down the hall as fast as he can in search of his lawyer, Deborah Bushnell. George Felos hurries off to the courthouse. Mr. Felos went directly to Judge Greer, ex party for an emergency motion to get an order enjoining DCF or any other person under penalty of contempt from trying to take custody of Terry or reinsert the feeding tube. Back at the hospice, Michael is pacing the halls, practically tearing his hair out as TV anchors debate the odds of a standoff between FDLE and police. And in order to avoid any kind of misunderstanding and tragedy, FDLE had radioed ahead to Pinellas park police, saying, hey, we're on our way, and the Pinellas park police told him to stay away, and FDLE backed off. No last minute intervention the governor's rescue mission has failed. Everything was turned upside down. Policemen are supposed to protect life and help people that are in trouble, but yet they were there to make sure Terry died. Governor Bush tells the press his hands are tied. I've consistently said that I can't go beyond what my powers are, and I'm not going to do it. As Terry lies dying, an increasing number of medical professionals write in challenging her PBS diagnosis and recommending new treatments. One of those is Dr. William Cheshire. When I first walked into her room, she immediately turned her head toward me and looked directly at my face. There was a look of curiosity or expectation in her expression, and she maintained eye contact for about half a minute. Cheshire declined an interview. So the voice you're hearing isn't his, but these are his words from a March 23 affidavit. As part of their review of the case, Florida's Adult Protective Services sends Cheshire on a mission to observe and document Terri Schiavo's true condition. Cheshire visits Terry, and he reviews her medical records and videotapes. As he reads, one issue keeps surfacing over and over again. Pain. Terry's not supposed to be able to feel pain in pbs. And yet, in my review of Terry's medical records, pain issues keep surfacing. Terry moans and cries when she has a uti, and her hospice nurses have to give her ibuprofen for menstrual cramps. Cheshire wonders if those responses might signal something more. Should not the clear presence of pain be given serious consideration as possibly indicating conscious awareness? In Terri Schiavo, if Terry is consciously aware of pain and therefore is capable of suffering, then her diagnosis of PVS may be tragically mistaken. Terry's 2002 CT scan shows she's lost a lot of her cerebral cortex, the part of the brain responsible for memory, emotions, consciousness. Scientists have traditionally distinguished pain reactions in the brainstem from conscious suffering in the cerebral cortex. But recent studies suggest, however, that such a distinction may not be the clear, bright line previously imagined. It's a major red light for Cheshire. He suspects Terry isn't in PBS at all, but instead mcs a minimally conscious state. As I looked at Terry and she gazed Directly back at me. I asked myself whether if I were her attending physician, I could in good conscience withdraw her feeding and hydration. No, I could not. I could not withhold life sustaining nutrition and hydration from this beautiful lady whose face brightens in the presence of others. In addition to Cheshire's report, The Schindler's collect 40 other affidavits. A handful date from the early 2000s, but most arrive in March 2005. They're from neurologists, nurses and speech pathologists. Of all the affidavits, David Gibbs thinks Cheshire's is a standout. This is an independent neurologist, highly trained. And he came back with the overwhelming opinion that Terri Schiavo was alive, she was not in pbs, and that she should indeed be kept alive. The judge in this case did not want to hear. Neither does the Mayo Clinic. They send out a disclaimer saying Cheshire's views don't represent an official position, since he only visited Terry and didn't perform a neurological exam. Scheibo expert Dr. Ron Cranford isn't impressed with Cheshire's conclusions. Cranford points out that Cheshire doesn't address Terry's flat EEGs, those brain scans detecting no cerebral activity. The Schindler's case races up and back to the Supreme Court twice in under 10 days. A record in US legal history, according to Gibbs. Between March 18th and 28th, the Schindlers file 10 petitions in 10 days. But the courts consistently rule against the Schindlers. The courts locked in on Judge Greer, made a decision, and we're going to stand by what the judges did. And there were moments where you began to realize each appeal was getting to be less likely of succeeding. March 25th is Good Friday. The Schindlers encourage protesters to go home for the holiday, but they don't. Outside the hospice, somber services on Good Friday with communion and prayers for Terri Schiavo. Terry is weakening. You know, she's down to her last hours. The crowds number in the hundreds. Protesters hail from every corner of the map. I'm down here from Mobile, Alabama, Washington State. Well, I'm from Lakeland, Florida. Most of them are just ordinary people moved by Terry's plight. And why did you come down here? I came down here because what is happening anyway? You slice it, it's an outrage. Terry Shiver ought to have a right to live. So the problem with this government is they started killing babies in 1973 with abortion. They killed 46 million. So I'm against abortion. No person should be starved or dehydrated. To death. No person. If they're a human being, then that's it. Some high profile celebrities also offer their support. Jesse Jackson and his entourage. Big names like Mel Gibson, Chuck Norris and Rosalynn Carter. Jim Caviezel, the actor who portrayed Jesus in the Passion of the Christ, calls Bobby quietly just to pray. Others come armed with strategies to rescue Terry. I can't tell you how many people came up to me who had the silver bullet that knew how to save Terry. A few try to take matters into their own hands. And in a related story, the North Carolina man accused of putting a $250,000 bounty on Michael Schiavo's head will make his first court appearance. The morning a member of a SWAT team walks up to Bobby with a question. Is he in touch with the militia? Because the militia was evidently going to. Was making threats. They were going to come take Terry away. And they thought that I was. Might have been coordinating it. And I'm like, hey, I didn't even know about it. No, I said, I have nothing to do with that. Frank Pavone and his associate Janet Morana, with Priests for Life, had considered their own rescue plan. There were people in the pro life movement that would have done anything to rescue. They were talking to us. Morana says she floated the idea to Bobby at a family dinner back in February. We go in the middle of the night, like at three in the morning, when very little people are going to be paying attention to what's going on. Maybe there'll be one security guard. We just march in there, and she's not on any machinery. We just put her on a stretcher and we have a jet waiting, a private jet that will get a donor to donate, and we'll fly her to a nearby island like Bermuda or Nassau, something close enough where it's like, time out, keep her safe, give her her nutrition so she won't die. And then we could talk about it later. You know, it was the idea of remove her from this perilous situation. They're going to starve her to death. Can you imagine that? But Morana says they can't do anything without the Schindler's approval. And the Schindlers, they say no thanks to plan B. In their heart of hearts, they really thought, if we just follow the law and do what we're supposed to do, this will never happen. Somehow it'll resolve itself. Somehow it resolves itself. Nearly 50 people have been arrested trying to bring Terri water, a handful of them children. One of these unlikely rescuers is Dow Pursley. He's a middle aged professor from Baptist Bible College and Seminary in Pennsylvania. Persley was in Pennsylvania keeping tabs on the Schiavo case and brought it up for discussion in an ethics class he was teaching. And one of my students was a great pastor in the area. And he said, Dow, he said, I feel really bad that we're sitting here talking about Terri Schiavo. She's down there without water and they're not feeding her and she's going to die and we're talking about her here. I just, it's a cognitive dissonance. And when I left that class, I went home and I told my wife, I've got to go down there. Persley catches a late flight and arrives at the hospice the next morning. Well, the first thing I saw was the SWAT team up in the wall back behind and I had taken two bottles of water, those little small delta bottles, and I just, I had a little eyedropper that the Catholics used to give communion to people that are, you know, can't swallow very well. And so I had that in my shirt pocket. Pursley knows it's an unlikely plan, maybe doomed to be nothing more than symbolic, even if he does make it inside. He doesn't even know which room Terry's in, but he believes God can do the impossible. I prayed before he went and I said, God, I, you know, I'm just going to do the right thing and if you want me to get in the room, I'll. I'm going to be giving her the water. But whatever the outcome, I'm leaving it to you. Then Persley hops the fence and makes a run for it just as quickly. On duty, police officers guarding hospice spring into action. But they knocked me down. There were about five cops that finally were there at the front door. One of the officers tases Pursley. Police escort him to jail where he strip searched and locked away. But that night, an anonymous benefactor posts bail, hires him a lawyer and covers his legal fees. Persley goes free. A reporter later asks Pursley why he did it. Pursley says Terry needed a defender and the words of Proverbs 24 kept ringing in his ears. It says this rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die. Save them as they stagger to their death. Don't excuse yourself by saying, look, we didn't know. For God understands hearts and he sees you. He who guards your soul knows you new, and he will repay people as their actions deserve. On March 26, Mary goes to visit Terry for the last time. I went in there a few times. Then after that, Bobby wouldn't let me go in there anymore because did you ever see somebody that was starved to death? Well, it's not a nice. It's not pretty. Okay. David Gibbs goes with her. As they near Terry's room, he notices something strange. The first thing that hit me was the noise. And I honestly thought, did an air conditioner go out? Did something happen? And then I thought, well, did they put her on a ventilator? I mean, my brain was, like, confused. It was like, what is this loud mechanical noise that I'm hearing? And as we would move into the room, Mary was in front of me. So I was kind of coming behind her, but I realized it was Terry's breathing. Terry's breath is coming in gasps. She's writhing up and down on her bed. Looking at Terri, I was shocked by what I was seeing. I knew she was not going to be well. But when you start to see someone that's dying of dehydration and starvation. I looked at her mouth, and I had seen chapped lips before and people that have skin that's been frostbitten or something, but I'd never seen a totally dry mouth where the tongue is white and flaking. And the roof of the mouth, you could see it was peeling. Her body was losing all moisture, and so it was getting extremely dry. Her face looked incredibly sunken. Her eyes were in deep. And her skin again, very, very kind of red and dry, like, almost like it had been burned. Mary bends over her daughter in anguish. And she was kissing her daughter and hugging her daughter and talking in her ear. I saw some of Mary's tears hit Terri's cheek, and as they would hit her cheek and kind of ride, it had the look of like a little creek of water in a desert canyon. Gibbs watches everything from the foot of the bed. Mary keeps reassuring Terry, telling her she isn't alone. And then she would cry, you know, dear Jesus, please help my daughter. Don't let her hurt. And you'd see her kind of go between prayer and mom encouraging and then just sobbing over this horrific scene. As the days slip past, Terry continues to fade. But what that really looks like depends on who you ask. Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, meanwhile, says that she's resting comfortably and admits her eyes are sunken in. But he says that she does not appear to be uncomfortable. The Schindlers say that's far from the truth. They watch in agony as Terry's body breaks down and Shrivels away. Oh, my gosh. I mean, just some. I mean, the only thing you can compare it to that people would understand is when you do see pictures of concentration camps. I mean, we were seeing my sister look like those people. I mean, this. The sunken eyes, it was grotesque. Her teeth were protruding because her face was just shrinking because it was getting so dehydrated. She was bleeding. The last couple days, she started bleeding. Her eyes started bleeding. Her lips were terribly chapped. Her skin started to chap. It started turning different shapes. I remember being yellowish or bluish skin. And while we were experiencing this, we had Michael's attorney coming out and giving press conferences. And his eyewitness was how beautiful and peaceful Terry appeared to him, which was completely contrary to what was happening inside the hospice and what we were seeing. Philos continues to insist that Terry can't consciously feel pain and isn't suffering. This, despite Dr. Cheshire's analysis, years of notes from Terry's rehab nurses, and Even Michael's own 1992 testimony to the contrary. Terry, Filo says, is dying a gentle, peaceful death. The unrebutted medical evidence is that a death of this kind is painless. Mary fires back, if anybody tells you in this whole world, that's a beautiful death, okay, they are absolutely lying, lying, lying, because it's not. On Easter Sunday, Michael allows Terry to receive the elements of the Eucharist from Monsignor Thaddeus Malinowski, a local priest serving as spiritual advisor to Terry and the Schindlers. Yesterday, Michael Schiavo did allow Terry to have Holy Communion for Easter with a drop of wine on her tongue. Her mouth was too dry for a wafer, but only under strict conditions. It was nuts. They had a. They, they. They only allowed us to do it if they had the chaplain of hospice holding Monsignor's hand. So Monsignor's holding the needle over, you know, Terry's mouth and. And the chaplain's holding Monsignor's hand. And they made sure that they were going to control how many drops he was able to give her. Before leaving. Bobby stoops down to give Terry a hug in the hallway. He realizes the vaseline on Terry's lips left an imprint on his shirt. He saves the shirt in storage and never wears it again. When Michael enters Terry's room a few days later, he can see that time is short. Philo sees it, too. It was evident upon first seeing Terry yesterday that she was entering into the final stages of her. Of her death process. She went through intermittent periods of Rapid breathing, which I'm told is called Kuzmal breathing. She would go into. She would go into periods of labored breathing. Her limbs became progressively colder. Michael, his brother Brian, Philos and Bushnell camp out in Terry's room. Hospice staff order them a pizza. They pull some chairs together, put their feet up and wait. Some beautiful soul sent. Just sent us for Michael a gorgeous bouquet of flowers with lilies and white roses and red roses. Just a gorgeous display of flowers yesterday that we brought to the hospice with us. Music was playing, very soft, soothing music for a good part of the day. The hospice facility itself was relatively quiet. We did not hear any protesters outside. It was a very peaceful and calm setting. In his book, Michael writes he held Terry's hand most of the night. He says he and Brian told stories about Terry, remembering her laughter and joy. I could see that Terri was changing. Her breathing was changing. It would be a little abnormal for a while and then go back to normal. And so I spent the night with her. I stayed by her side. I cradled her in my arms and I told her I love her. It's still hard to this day. And I told her, it's okay. Meanwhile, Bobby, Suzanne and Father Pavone are holed up in the shop across the street, waiting for the moment they can return to Terry's side. So we're trying to fall asleep in the bookstore. We're on a couch there and oh, my gosh, the night, the night dragged on. We were waiting. We wanted to go back in. So we were waiting for them to tell us, okay, Michael has finished his visit. You guys can go back. The hours of the night went on and we heard nothing. Three hours, four hours, five hours. Before you know it, it was seven o' clock in the morning. And finally, right around that 7:30 or so, we were told we could go back in, which we did right away. When Pavone enters Terry's room, he can tell she doesn't have much time left. The vase of flowers by Terry's head creates a scene of searing irony for Pavone. What was going through my mind was, lord, look at the absurdity here. How did we get into this absurd situation where these flowers rightfully are being nourished by water and the union, a human being inches away is deprived of water, dying because she's deprived of water. Bobby sits in a chair on Terry's right. Suzanne and Pavone sit opposite. Sometimes one of them bends over the bed and lays a gentle hand on Terry's head. But mainly long interludes of silence because by then the situation was beyond words. When a situation is like beyond our own words, we rely on the words of the church. And so we use the prayers of the church. I use the prayers for the dying, I use the prayers of Scripture. And then sometimes it's just beyond words, period. And so you're in silence. And then sometimes it's even beyond silence. And what do you do then? You sing. Mor servita duelo conflic sere mirando dux vite mortu. Sure. To the Paschal victim Christians, raise your hymns of praise. Christ the lamb has died for the sheep, the innocent one has died for sinners and has reconciled us to the Father. You think of these words and what was going on in the context. It says, life and death were locked in an awesome struggle. Life's captain died, but now reigns victory victorious Victorx misery. Amen. Hallelujah. Around 8:45am staff go in to check Terry's condition. They ask Pavone, Bobby and Suzanne to step out into the hallway during the exam. But we were promised that once she was assessed, we would be allowed back into the room. When once we got outside the room, a policeman said that we have to leave the hospice building. And that's when I became very upset because I wanted to be with my sister. It's the last straw for Bobby. I mean, look, the guy had no sleep for days. He was frustrated, sad, angry. All this. Anybody would have lost their temper, anybody. So he did. At that point, it was very tense. By now, the hospice, the vice president has tracked down Michael about a quarter of nine. The administrator came down and said, michael, if you want to see Terry, you need to come now. So I jumped up from the bed and I hurt my knee and all this. And I was hobbling down the hall as quickly as I could. And as I was there, the administrator said, well, we asked Bobby and Suzanne to leave because we wanted to do an assessment. And we noticed the change in Terry. But Suzanne left with the priest and Bobby got into an argument with the police officer. I had no time to sit and think about Bobby Schindler and what he was doing out there with the police officer. So my attorney Quick said to me, do you want him in? And I said, no. I had seconds when I got in the room what to spend with Terry. Police turned Bobby, Suzanne and Pavone away. A few minutes later, at 9:05am on March 31, Teresa Marie Schiavo takes her last breath. Michael says he was kneeling next to the bed, cradling Terry as she died. Crying one by one, his companions leave the room. Only Brian remains. Michael takes a rose and places it in Terry's hands. Twenty minutes later, the brothers leave too. Meanwhile, Suzanne calls her parents to break the news. When Mary hears it, she starts to sob and can't stop. She's been bracing herself for this moment for days. But now that it's here, she's overcome with grief. After fighting to be strong for her family for so long, she can finally just cry. Bob holds Mary tightly in the backseat of Mike Tamaro's car as they drive to the hospice. They meet up with David Gibbs at the Yachts and Inn shop across the street and prepare to brave the crowds outside. TV cameras surround them. Reporters shout questions. The family will later say the cameras and reporters felt like birds of prey. But Mary doesn't say a thing. She can't. Her voice is choked by tears. Bobby and Suzanne wait outside the door, stricken and pale faced. Even now. Police stop and search the Schindlers on their way in. Inside the room, Terry's body is shrouded. When I was in there, I said Bobby had covered her up because there was no way I was going to go in there to see her looking like that. Because I probably wouldn't be as like I am today if I had seen her. So I thank God every day that somebody covered her. Mary throws herself on Terry, sobbing. I cried for a while and then one of the policemen wouldn't let me stay and they picked me up by my shoulders. They told them to take me out. David Gibbs calls the Franciscan Brothers of Peace to coordinate a covert getaway so the media won't trample them. They arrive in a van at the back door of the hospice. Outside, a news helicopter hovers overhead. Police motorcycles hem the van in before and behind to force a way through the crowds clogging the streets. Mary puts her head down on Bob's lap. Bob watches through the window as reporters run alongside the van. One cracks his telephoto lens against the glass. It startles Mary and she begins to cry. The camera operator falls over, then gets right back up again, running after the car. At home, Bobby turns on the radio and listens as Rush Limbaugh announces Terry's death. Today, America, we have hit rock bottom. Bobby turns off the radio and falls asleep. And everyone was exhausted. I remember then we went to their house after that. I remember I could still see Bobby just lying on the floor asleep, you know, he was like. Finally was able to get some sleep, but he was just. He wasn't sleeping in a bed. He was on the living room floor. After the Schindlers leave, hospice workers wash Terry's body. About 40 of them gather outside Terry's room to hold hands and pray. Then they escort her remains down the hallway. Outside, two identical white vans wait, one to carry Terry's body, one to act as a decoy. Police escort both vehicles off the premises, and a wave of grief passes over the crowds huddled on the grounds. The most dedicated protesters, those who've been here for all two weeks or more, some of them are taking the news very hard. I've seen many fall to their knees in prayer, other women sitting here weeping, one man chanting, terry's home. Now, many people feel they have lost a great war and not just a battle now that Terry Chavel is dead at the age of 41. Next time on Lawless. The world learns of Terry's death. Ann waits for the results of her autopsy. The next big question in the Terri Schiavo story is whether or not the autopsy results resolve the central issue, which is just how brain damaged was she? Lawless is a production of World Radio. Paul Butler is our executive producer and sound engineer. Our production assistant is Lillian Hammond. Music by Will Sheehan. Lawless is reported and written by Grand Grace Snell, Lynn Vincent and me, Anna Johansson Brown. For more resources related to this and other episodes, visit lawlesspodcast.com thanks for joining.