Judge attains fame, infamy in Schiavo case

updated 8:37 p.m. ET March 26, 2005

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Amid the pitched legal battle over Terri Schiavo that has been fought through his court, Pinellas County Circuit Judge George Greer has been under the protection of armed guards, and friends say his family also is protected.

Death threats have been made against him for allowing Michael Schiavo to remove the feeding tube that has kept his 41-year-old wife alive for the past 15 years, and the Southern Baptist church that Greer belonged to for years has asked him to leave the congregation.

Greer — a conservative Christian and longtime Republican known for an easy manner — has become the public face of the judiciary in this internationally watched fight.

But despite the mounting pressure, he has been steadfast in his rulings that Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state and did not want to be kept alive artificially.

“There are very few people who have shown the will to stand up to raw power,” said Stetson University Law Professor Michael Allen, who has studied the Schiavo case. “He’s one.”

“This is simply a case of people not liking this decision, and the fact that a judge is standing up to this is quite important,” Allen added.

Longtime force in case
On Saturday, Greer rejected arguments by Terri Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, that their daughter tried to say “I want to live” before her feeding tube was removed March 18. They argued that she said “AHHHHH” and “WAAAAAAA” when asked to repeat the phrase.

Greer said that “all of the credible medical evidence this court has received over the last five years” suggests Schiavo’s behavior is not a product of cognitive awareness. Doctors have said Schiavo’s past utterances were involuntary moans consistent with someone in a vegetative state.

When informed of Greer’s rejection, Bob Schindler reacted with somber sarcasm: “He did? Great surprise.”

It was Greer who first ruled that Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state and would not want to be kept alive artificially. Three times he has ordered the feeding tube be removed, as requested by Michael Schiavo, and his rulings have consistently been upheld in appeals filed by the Schindlers.

Greer, 63, also stood up to congressional efforts to intervene in the case, rejecting an attempt by the House of Representatives to subpoena Terry Schiavo as a means to force the reinsertion of her feeding tube. Since then, other judges have followed in refusing to act under a newly crafted federal law allowing them to consider the case.

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