A convicted murderer in Iowa appealed for release, claiming he briefly “died” in a hospital while being treated for a medical emergency.
Benjamin Schreiber, 66, was convicted in 1997 of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole, but he claims that he technically died and fulfilled his sentence after a kidney stone caused him to go into septic shock in 2015. His request for postconviction release was denied in 2018.
Court documents at the time claimed that Schreiber’s request was “unpersuasive and without merit.” Unmoved by the unusual circumstances, the Iowa Court of Appeals upheld that denial on Wednesday.
Schreiber had signed a “do not resuscitate” order years before he was hospitalized. The hospital also contacted his brother about whether or not to perform life-saving procedures and was told, “If he is in pain, you may give him something to ease the pain, but otherwise you are to let him pass.”
Doctors instead gave him medication that prevented him from dying of his illness, and he recovered. He claimed that his heart stopped briefly and that he technically died, which should have ended his time in prison, and added that his penalty was to serve a lifetime behind bars “but not to life plus one day.”
“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,” said Judge Amanda Potterfield in her decision. The court did not respond to claims that Schreiber’s right to due process was violated when his order not to resuscitate was ignored by hospital staff in 2015.
