Published 20:22 IST, November 11th 2019
Murderer who died briefly in hospital claims he served life sentence
Murderer Benjamin Schreiber serving life for murder claims he has served his sentence because he "died" during a medical emergency; court ruled against plea.
A US man convicted of murder, who supposedly died during a medical emergency has claimed that he has served his life sentence. However, the court rejected his plea to be released, saying if he can make such an absurd plea, he must still be alive.
Murderer asks for a release after being resuscitated
The man named Benjamin Schreiber was charged with murder after he thrashed a man to death in 1996 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Schreiber, who had been kept in the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison was taken to the hospital back in 2015. He claims that he was taken to the hospital and he “died” in doctors’ care. As per Des Moines Register, Schreiber had signed a ‘do not resuscitate’ agreement years ago.
Court ruled against the petition
According to the court, the hospital in Texas called the brother of Benjamin Schreiber, who then asked the hospital staff to cure his pain and provide him with a painkiller. However, it is further mentioned that if there is no cure then the hospital can allow him to die. The documents provided by the court reveal that the doctors injected IV fluids and conducted a surgery on him to remove kidney stones. During the hearing, Schreiber argued that the was sentenced for a lifetime and not life plus one day. The appeal was made in April 2018. The court gave the verdict on November 9, saying that if Schreiber is alive then he must stay in prison and if he is dead, then the plea stands rejected.
Resuscitated does not mean legal death
In another case, Jerry Rosenberg was convicted of murdering two New York detectives. He too was sentenced to life imprisonment. He filed a petition in the New York court asking for a release on the basis that during his surgery his heart stopped and he was considered 'dead'. However, the judge ruled against his petition and said that he was not legally dead. According to one of the professors of the University of Michigan Law School, Eve Brensike Primus said that if a person is declared legally dead before he is revived from his apparent death then it would create a wave of problems not just for the legal systems but also for the insurance and inheritance claims. She exclaimed that Schreiber’s argument was clever but could not fit in.
Updated 02:51 IST, November 12th 2019