Ah, Halloween—the time of year when pop culture bombards us with images of those who are dead, yet, at the same time, not dead. Whether it’s Rick Grimes and company facing the zombie apocalypse in AMC’s smash hit “The Walking Dead,” or vampires (aka the “undead”) feeding on human blood to survive in countless movies and TV shows, society’s fascination with the dead returning to life seems as insatiable as the zombies and vampires themselves. But lurking within the dark corners of the legal system, we have our own problems with the “dead” returning to life—the legally dead, that is.

What happens to those who are declared legally dead but resurface years later? Does being legally dead wipe away past transgressions? What about owning property or enjoying other rights, long after the courts considered you to be “dead”? Thomas Sanders found out in September that being dead isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The 57-year-old Mississippi man was sentenced to death after a federal jury convicted him for the kidnaping and death of a 12-year-old Las Vegas girl in 2010. However, Sanders’ death sentence came after another judge had already declared him dead. That was in 1994, after Sanders abandoned his family in 1987 and disappeared. Sanders’ legally dead status, which initially befuddled federal prosecutors, ultimately made no difference. It turns out there is no get-out-of-jail-free-because-you’re-dead card.

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