Image March 13, 2008 Cuyahoga County Building elevator.

A recent study, linked here, demonstrates that  heart attacks dramatically increase with grief.  Besides grief- for example caused by the death of a loved one- other emotions like anger, depression, and anxiety also dramatically increase the risk of heart attack.

Every time I see Jimmy Dimora I am reminded that Mr. Dimora is very overweight and is, consequently statistically at a higher risk of heart attack.  So, since our system assumes that Mr. Dimora is innocent until proven guilty, is it just to prosecute a grossly overweight person the same way  a normal healthy weight person is prosecuted?  

(Then again,a perfectly normal weight person may feel extremely anxious during a trial.)

But certainly it would seem unjust, for the overweight person to die of a heart attack caused during a trial by  the innocence person’s blood chemistry inadvertently executing  him - in a matter for which the death penalty wasn’t even close to a potential punishment!

Although complex, we all know that certain people have consciences that are more active than other persons consciences.  On one extreme, are sociopaths who are able to act without empathy or feeling. On the other hand are people like your mother, or who we would like to be our mother, who are wonderfully empathetic, and who are always concerned if they offend or inconvenience someone else-and wake up in the middle the night thinking about it.

In order to take all the personal variables out of the justice system, perhaps the accused in a trial needs to be constantly medically monitored,  and if their blood chemistry skus into the red zone, the prosecutor needs to lighten up.

Kidding aside - if our justice system uses anxiety as a means to an end (and I think the system absolutely does) - where is Justice?

This piece dictated with Microsoft speech recognition.