Death by Agitation

While driving in Akron last year, James Nosis, 52, became enraged at a hornblowing motorist who passed his car. At the next stoplight, he challenged the other driver, 65-year-old Charles Ripple, to a fight. Though Ripple and his wife pleaded that he suffered from a heart condition, Nosis pursued them to their suburban home and made menacing gestures in the driveway. After Mrs. Ripple went inside to call the sheriff, her husband collapsed. Less than an hour later, he died of a heart attack.

Was Nosis criminally responsible for Ripple's death? Akron Prosecutor James V. Barbuto could find no precedent for such a prosecution in his state. Words, after all, are not blows. And the early common-law rule was that a man may not be convicted of a killing unless the death was caused by physical contact. Nonetheless, Barbuto charged Nosis with manslaughter.

The prosecutor had a point. Ohio law says that a man may be convicted of manslaughter if he commits an illegal act that could be "reasonably anticipated by an ordinarily prudent person" as likely to cause another's death. Even if Nosis did not strike Ripple, the prosecution argued at the trial, his threats and gestures amounted to an assault. Moreover, since Nosis knew about Ripple's heart condition, he could have reasonably anticipated that the threats were likely to result in death. Nosis was found guilty, and the Ohio Supreme Court has just upheld that verdict by refusing to review his appeal.

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