A US court has refused to free a killer serving a life sentence, after he attempted to claimed he should be released because he had “momentarily died” and been resuscitated four years ago.
The unconventional, and rather ambitious, legal argument came to light this week when the Court of Appeals of Iowa denied an appeal for inmate Benjamin Schreiber, who has been in prison since he was convicted of murder in 1997.
He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for bludgeoning John Dale Terry to death in Agency, Iowa in 1996.
“Schreiber is either still alive, in which case he must remain in prison, or he is actually dead, in which case this appeal is moot,” the court wrote.
The legal question arose in March 2015 when Schreiber, 66, suffered from large kidney stones which led to septic poisoning. After falling unconscious in his prison cell, he was taken to a local hospital where he was resuscitated five times.
He underwent surgery and was treated with antibiotics, court documents noted.
In 2018, Schreiber applied to a state court for release, arguing that he had “momentarily died” at the hospital and therefore fulfilled his life sentence.
He said he had been resuscitated by medical staff against his wishes and that he was sentenced to life without parole, “but not to life plus one day.”
After the state’s motion to dismiss the case was granted in district court, Schreiber appealed.
The appeals court said it did not believe lawmakers intended for the law dictating sentencing for the most serious felonies to be read as if defendants should be freed whenever medical procedures during their incarceration lead to their resuscitation by medical professionals.