Claiming that his sentence was technically over

An inmate who died in prison and was revived once tried to argue that he had technically served his sentence.

By Clarin

Benjamin Schreiber was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996 after pleading guilty to first-degree murder. Schreiber beat a man to death with the handle of a pickaxe and a US court heard he conspired with the victim’s girlfriend to kill him and leave his body outside a trailer.

After nearly 20 years behind bars, Schreiber developed kidney stones and began suffering from septic poisoning, according to CNN.

In 2015, he lost consciousness and was transferred from the Iowa State Penitentiary to a nearby hospital. At the medical center, Schreiber was resuscitated five times as his heart briefly stopped.

Doctors used epinephrine and adrenaline to revive the man, which stabilized his condition and allowed them to treat his sepsis.

Once recovered, he was sent back to prison, but received an extraordinary plea for life imprisonment, as he claimed he had technically served it.

The convicted killer argued that he was resuscitated against his will, and the Des Moines Register reported that he signed a “do not resuscitate” order years ago.

They brought in Schreiber’s brother and told the medical staff: “If you have pain, you can give him something to relieve him, but otherwise you should let him go.”

However, no one really believed the convicted killer’s claim that he had technically served a life sentence because he had died and returned against his will.

The courts took a different view of his claim that he should have served a life sentence, describing his argument as “unconvincing and baseless”.

Read more in Clarin