An Iowa judge has rejected an appeal from a convicted murderer who claimed he completed his life sentence after dying and being resuscitated during a medical emergency in 2015.
Benjamin Schreiber, 66, was convicted of murder in 1997 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and he had signed a “do not resuscitate” order, according to Fox News.
In 2015, a case of kidney stones caused him to get septic poisoning and he was rushed to the hospital, where doctors flouted the resuscitation order and called Schreiber’s brother for direction. (RELATED: US Attorney Says Lori Loughlin Could Get ‘Substantially Higher’ Sentence Than Felicity Huffman)
An inmate’s hands on the bars of a prison cell. (Shutterstock)
The brother instructed doctors to let him pass away as well, but they moved forward with resuscitation. The Iowa court of appeals is the second court to decide against him.
“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,” Judge Amanda Potterfield wrote in the court opinion. (RELATED: 17-Year-old Sentenced To Life In Prison For Fatally Running Over Baltimore Police Officer)
Schreiber also claimed that doctors violated his due process rights by resuscitating him against his wishes, but the Iowa district court did not address the argument, meaning the Iowa court of appeals couldn’t address it either, according to the Des Moines Register.
The appeals court ruled that Schreiber’s sentence will not be completed until a medical examiner has officially announced him deceased.