# "For the rest of your natural life" Is this a real thing?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-rest-of-your-natural-life-is-this-a-real-thing/709810>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 14, 2015, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-rest-of-your-natural-life-is-this-a-real-thing/709810 "2015-01-14T11:48:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-the-rest-of-your-natural-life-is-this-a-real-thing/709810/21 "2015-01-16T22:10:13Z")

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> [@robert\_columbia](#):
>
> Yes, it does seem that a crafty con could set up a situation where they would be declared “dead” temporarily and then claim that their sentence ended upon their “death”.

It’s been tried. I knew a prisoner who was sentenced to life imprisonment. He later had a heart attack and his heart stopped but he was revived. He then filed a lawsuit arguing that because his heart had stopped he had been dead, albeit temporarily, and therefore his sentence of life imprisonment was completed. The judge did not rule in his favor.

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