Court refuses to release a convict after he briefly died

"rest of their natural life" - this could still be subject to argument.

Perhaps, though not in this specific case, but more generally I'm thinking of something like "The man they couldn’t hang", where a sentence of death by hanging was commuted after three failed attempts. Maybe in those days there was considered to be a higher authority than our courts.

Actually it's interesting that - according to online sources - in a legal context "natural life" means earthly existence, presumably as opposed to post mortem (unearthly) survival.