Man claimed he served life sentence after a short-term death

A man who was sentenced to life in prison at the Iowa State Penitentiary, appealed his conviction after he was revived in a medical emergency. He claimed that he had fulfilled the sentence after his short-term death.

Benjamin Schreiber, 66, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after being convicted of murder. According to court records, in March of 2015, he was hospitalized after large kidney stones lead to septic poisoning.

According to Schreiber, the poisoning cause him to "fall unconscious" in his prison cell. Schreiber was resuscitated five times while being transported to be the hospital.

In April of 2018, he filed for post-conviction relief, where he claimed that he momentarily died at the hospital. Because of this, he had fulfilled his "life" sentence. His argument proceeded to say that he was being imprisoned illegally because he believed his sentence had been fulfilled.

The court dismissed the request, stating it was "unpersuasive and without merit."