In the context Paul seems to use the case of a widow, that is no longer under her late husband's authority, or law.
A dying person becomes free of accountability for his sins, because there is no way to make any action stick. Now, about those scrolls that are opened? and judged according to their works that are remembered? ?
It seems that at death, any debt, any accountability for sin, inherited or accumulated becomes simply unenforceable, Puff-gone. Perhaps even more so, if the death, sin is only symbolic.