A Wapello County man who tried to get out of his life sentence early on a unique appeal has now died in prison.
The Department of Corrections says 70-year-old Benjamin Schreiber died of natural causes in a Fort Dodge hospital Friday. Schrieber began serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in 1997 — but tried to get out in 2018 when he said his heart had stopped during a medical procedure related to kidney stones and therefore had died and fulfilled his life sentence.
The Iowa Court of Appeals didn’t buy it and ruled that Schreiber was either alive, in which case he must remain in prison, or he is dead, in which case his appeal was moot.