An Iowa man serving a life sentence shocked legal observers after he argued that his prison term had technically ended—because he had died and been revived by medical staff.
Benjamin Schreiber, 68, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996, suffered septic shock in 2015 and was briefly declared clinically dead before doctors resuscitated him. Years later, Schreiber filed an appeal claiming that since his heart had stopped and he was medically dead, he had fulfilled the terms of his life sentence. Therefore, he argued, he should be released from prison.
“I was sentenced to life without parole,” Schreiber wrote in his court filing. “I died. That sentence was served.”
While the argument was unusual, it was not dismissed outright by the court, prompting a flurry of legal commentary and public fascination. However, the Iowa Court of Appeals ultimately rejected the claim in a 2019 decision, stating that Schreiber was “very much alive” and therefore still subject to his life sentence.
“We find this argument unpersuasive and without merit,” the court wrote. “A plain reading of the law indicates that he must remain in prison until he dies—and stays dead.”
Legal experts viewed the appeal as a creative, if futile, attempt to exploit a technicality.
“This is certainly one of the more imaginative interpretations of a ‘life sentence’ I’ve seen,” said Professor Laura Kent, a criminal law scholar at the University of Iowa. “But the court was correct—dying for a few minutes doesn’t void a life sentence.”
Schreiber remains incarcerated at the Iowa State Penitentiary. His case continues to circulate in legal circles as a curious example of how literal language can lead to bizarre legal arguments.