Not quite sentencing the dead

This sentencing item from the AP wires seems fitting for a Friday afternoon:

Prosecutors [in Indiana] are investigating whether a phony obituary was placed in a newspaper in an attempt to keep a convicted forger out of prison.  The obituary reporting the supposed death and cremation of Shawnda K. Hatfield was faxed to Delaware Circuit Court Judge Robert Barnet Jr.

But Hatfield, 41, was later found at her home in nearby Dunkirk and arrested.  Barnet sentenced her Thursday to four years in prison for altering a check drawn on the account of White Feather Farms, where she formerly worked.  Hatfield said she had no idea how her obituary ended up in The Star Press.