Court refuses to release a convict after he briefly died

Killer claims his life sentence is served because he briefly died

He said his sentence ended when his heart stopped during a medical emergency four years ago, even though he was revived.

On Wednesday, the appeals court upheld the lower court's ruling. It added that his sentence would not end until a medical examiner formally declares him dead.

I suspect this may potentially be an area of moving goalposts. Maybe not in this case, but there have been others (maybe not in the U.S.) where a prisoner has been formally declared dead and subsequently revived. (I don't recall off the top of my head what happened later in those other cases - sometimes such spontaneous revivals have been problematic, due to lack of immediate medical care afterwards).

Killer claims his life sentence is served because he briefly died



I suspect this may potentially be an area of moving goalposts. Maybe not in this case, but there have been others (maybe not in the U.S.) where a prisoner has been formally declared dead and subsequently revived. (I don't recall off the top of my head what happened later in those other cases - sometimes such spontaneous revivals have been problematic, due to lack of immediate medical care afterwards).

Courtesy of the Daily Grail - there's a clearer report than the BBC's here, explaining the appeal court's reasoning:
"... the appeals court said a "plain reading" of Iowa law says defendants guilty of a class A felony "must spend the rest of their natural life in prison, regardless of how long that period of time ends up being or any events occurring before the defendant's life ends."
https://7news.com.au/news/crime/a-convic...d-c-548493

That's what I would have expected a life sentence to mean (rather than an "until death" sentence).

Depressing to see a senior judge misusing the word "moot," though ...

"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.

"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.