Are medical problems valid excuses?

I admit it, I over think.

The Roger Stephens case has been on my mind.

If you remember, Roger Stephens is the guy from Stone Mountain who lost his temper and slapped a 2-year-old child of a stranger in the Wal-Mart store. He was just sentenced to 1 year in prison along with counseling, etc.

I've been wondering if Stephens' lawyer had his client tested for diabetes/high blood pressure or even testosterone problems. Maybe he did and they didn't find anything. I'm not making excuses for Stephens, but I know in the past, there were women who were found not guilty of murder because they had severe PMS! So if Stephens had a blood sugar issue, couldn't that be a defense?

I found that Stephens had the same defense attorney (Jeff Sliz) who defended Laurie Alexander, a woman from Lawrenceville who was accused of stabbing her husband with a kitchen knife, after she found out the night before that he had been having an affair. That woman was acquitted, and that looked like an open/shut case to me that she was going to be found guilty (I was wrong, but that was just my peanut gallery opinion, I wasn't on the jury seeing/hearing all the facts in the case of course).

Do you feel that medical issues should be a valid point at all in defense cases? Or do you think that regardless of a person's medical issues, they are guilty when they do something and should serve the time?

Related links:

Grouchy A-hole Roger Stephens found guilty
Creative Loafing

Walmart Slapper Found Guilty
Coosa Valley News

Man found guilty in the case of the slap heard 'round the world

Man found guilty after slapping a stranger's toddler in Walmart
NBC13.com
Gwinnett Co., GA - A man arrested last fall after slapping a child in a Georgia Walmart was found guilty Tuesday of second degree child cruelty charges. ...

Man sentenced to year in jail for slapping stranger's child in Wal-Mart
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office Roger Stephens was found guilty in a Gwinnett County bench trial. Stephens apologized to the little girl's family but did ...



Interestingly, his defense attorney was the talented Jeff Silz (the same lawyer who was defense attorney in the case of the Lawrenceville woman accused of stabbing her husband to death.