I ‘died’ in hospital so I’ve served life sentence, says killer

A KILLER jailed for bludgeoning a man to death urged a court to release him from jail – because he briefly ‘died’ during a medical emergency and so has served his life sentence.

Benjamin Schreiber’s heart stopped after developing septic poisoning from kidney stones in 2015 and he had to be resuscitated five times by hospital doctors.

According to documents lodged at the Iowa Court of Appeals in the US, he claimed ‘he momentarily died at the hospital, thereby fulfilling his life sentence’. The papers added: ‘Because his sentence has been fulfilled, he argues he is imprisoned illegally and should be immediately released.’

Schreiber, right, was sentenced to life without parole in 1997 after killing a man with a pickaxe and leaving his body outside a trailer.

A district court had rejected Schreiber’s application for release, at which point he took the matter to the higher state court. Now the appeals court has upheld the earlier decision. Judge Amanda Potterfield, speaking on behalf of a three-judge panel, said: ‘Schreiber is either alive, in which case he must remain in prison, or he is dead, in which case this appeal is moot.’ Last week’s judgment also stated that a ‘plain reading’ of Iowa law was that those people found guilty of committing a such a serious crime ‘must spend the rest of their natural life in jail, regardless of how long that period of time ends up being, or any events occurring before the defendant’s life ends’. Schreiber, 66, remains in jail.