2023考研英語閱讀美國的死刑
Book Review;Capital punishment inAmerica
書評;美國的死刑;
Justice, delayed and denied
正義, 姍姍來遲甚至無處可伸?
Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong.By Raymond Bonner.
《不公正的剖析：一種謀殺案出的差錯》,RaymondBonner著。
What sort of town was Greenwood, South Carolinain the early 1980s? It was the kind of place where aprominent white man could get away with shooting and killing a black man who walkedacross his property at night. When the local chief prosecutor, William T. Jones, brought thecase before a grand jury, he was not looking for an indictment. Surely anyone would havebehaved the same way under the circumstances, he argued. Surely, he told the jurors, theytoo would have picked up a shotgun. The grand jury did not indict.
上世紀80年代早期，美國南卡羅來納州的格林伍德是怎樣的一個城鎮呢?這是這樣的一個地方，一個身份顯赫的白人在射擊殺死一個晚上穿過他私人土地的黑人后并沒有受到什么懲罰。在當地首席檢察官William T.Jones將這個案件拿到大陪審團面前時，他并不是在尋求一種控訴。他認為，在同樣的情況下每個人肯定都會采取同樣的行動。他很堅定地告訴陪審團，他們也會拿起一把獵槍。陪審團沒有起訴。
A few months later Jones persuaded the same grand jury to indict Edward Lee Elmore, a23-year-old black man, for the murder of Dorothy Edwards, a 75-year-old white woman. Shewas found inside her bedroom closet, bruised and repeatedly stabbed. Mr Elmore wassentenced to death less than 90 days later. This grim case is the subject of Anatomy ofInjustice, a gripping and enraging book from Raymond Bonner, a veteran investigativejournalist at the New York Times.Mr Elmore would spend 27 years on death row, despitestrong circumstantial evidence suggesting that he did not commit the crime. His capitalsentence was ultimately overturned thanks to the tireless efforts of Diana Holt, his lawyerand the book s hero, who spent more than a decade seeking justice on his behalf.
幾個月之后Jones說服這相同的大陪審團起訴 Edward Lee Elmore，一個23歲的黑人謀殺一位75歲的白人婦女Dorothy Edwards。她是在自己的臥室衣櫥被發現的，身上青腫并被刺了很多刀。Elmore先生在90天內就被判處死刑。這個殘酷的例子就是《不公正的剖析》這本書的主題，這本吸引人的書是一位紐約時報資深調查資訊記者雷蒙德邦納寫的。盡管大量的間接推測都表明Elmore先生并沒有犯罪，但他也將在死刑房耗盡27年。他死刑的罪狀最終在戴安娜霍爾特的不懈努力下推翻了，戴安娜霍爾特是他的律師也是這本書的主人翁，他花費了10多年的時間為Elmore 聲張正義。
Mentally disabled and barely literate, Mr Elmore was 14 years old when he dropped out ofschool. He could add and subtract using his fingers, but he could not tell the time, he did notknow the seasons and he could not understand directions. He became a neighbourhoodhandyman, and he cleaned Edwards s gutters and washed her windows two weeks before shewas killed. He was arrested because his fingerprint was found at her house.
智力上的缺陷以及知識的匱乏，Elmore在他14歲的時候就輟學了。他可以用手指進行加減但是他不能識別時間，不知道一年四季，沒有方向感。他成了鄰居街坊里的勤雜工，就在Dorothy Edwards被殺的前兩周，他還在清洗她家的水溝，擦洗他的窗戶。由于在Edwards家發現了他的指紋就被逮捕了。
At his trial, Mr Elmore was given two lawyers. One was known as the bourbon cowboy. Hewas twice arrested for drunk driving, and his breath smelled of alcohol in court. The otherlawyer referred to his client as a redheaded nigger. They had Mr Elmore testify, a rarity inmurder trials, and they called no other witnesses. The judge dismissed four potential jurorsbecause of their opposition to capital punishment. It took the jury less than three hours to convict Mr Elmore, and anadditional 50 minutes to sentence him to death.
在審訊過程中，Elmore 有兩位律師。一位被稱作波旁牛仔。這位律師曾兩次酒后駕駛被拘留，同時在法庭上他呼吸里有濃重的酒味。另一位提到的律師對于他的客戶來說就是紅發黑人。他們讓Elmore自己作證，這是在謀殺案件中少有的事，他們稱沒有其他證人了。法官解散了四個潛在的陪審團，正由于他們對死刑裁決的反對。這就使得陪審團在不到3個小時就判Elmore有罪，并在額外的50分鐘內就對他判了死刑。
But Mr Elmore did not die in jail. After the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that states could notexecute the mentally disabled, his sentence was commuted to life in prison, where he stillsits. Opponents of capital punishment may be familiar with arguments about its expense,unjust application and inefficacy as a deterrent. But it is another thing entirely to readabout patently biased judges, policemen who lie under oath and bloodthirsty prosecutors.
但是Elmore并沒有死于監獄。在2005年最高法院裁決認為美國各州不能對精神障礙者進行處死之后，他的宣判減刑成終生監禁。死刑的反對者可能熟于爭論其代價，即不公正的運用以及威懾性不強。但是這對于帶有明顯偏見的法官、可以在宣誓下撒謊的警察、嗜血的檢察官理解起來完全是另外的一回事。
In telling Mr Elmore s story, Mr Bonner deftly weaves in a brief history of American capitalpunishment and its discontents. Following a brief moratorium in 1972, when the SupremeCourt ruled that the death penalty s application violated the Eighth Amendment s ban oncruel and unusual punishment, it was reinstated in 38 states from 1976. By 2010, 1,226more executions had taken place, 1,010 of them in the South. Most of these executedinmates have been black; a vast majority of the victims in capital cases were white. But MrBonner s book is not a treatise against the death penalty. Rather, it is a dismal look atwhat happens in America s justice system when justice is absent.
在講述Elmore的故事的時候，奧邦納很快的就編織出了關于美國死刑刑罰的簡潔歷史，并表示不滿。隨后就是 1972年的一個簡潔的禁令在那時，這最高法院裁定這死刑刑法的運用違反了第八修正案禁止殘忍與異常的刑罰條款，到了1976年在38個州才恢復使用。截止2010年，執行了1226多次死刑的裁決，其中南方占到1010例。大部分的死囚犯是黑人，而大多數的受害者是資本階級白人。但是Bonner 的書不是一本反對死刑的論述。然而，它是對美國的司法系統當公正不在時所發生的事的一點心痛的看法。
Book Review;Capital punishment inAmerica
書評;美國的死刑;
Justice, delayed and denied
正義, 姍姍來遲甚至無處可伸?
Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong.By Raymond Bonner.
《不公正的剖析：一種謀殺案出的差錯》,RaymondBonner著。
What sort of town was Greenwood, South Carolinain the early 1980s? It was the kind of place where aprominent white man could get away with shooting and killing a black man who walkedacross his property at night. When the local chief prosecutor, William T. Jones, brought thecase before a grand jury, he was not looking for an indictment. Surely anyone would havebehaved the same way under the circumstances, he argued. Surely, he told the jurors, theytoo would have picked up a shotgun. The grand jury did not indict.
上世紀80年代早期，美國南卡羅來納州的格林伍德是怎樣的一個城鎮呢?這是這樣的一個地方，一個身份顯赫的白人在射擊殺死一個晚上穿過他私人土地的黑人后并沒有受到什么懲罰。在當地首席檢察官William T.Jones將這個案件拿到大陪審團面前時，他并不是在尋求一種控訴。他認為，在同樣的情況下每個人肯定都會采取同樣的行動。他很堅定地告訴陪審團，他們也會拿起一把獵槍。陪審團沒有起訴。
A few months later Jones persuaded the same grand jury to indict Edward Lee Elmore, a23-year-old black man, for the murder of Dorothy Edwards, a 75-year-old white woman. Shewas found inside her bedroom closet, bruised and repeatedly stabbed. Mr Elmore wassentenced to death less than 90 days later. This grim case is the subject of Anatomy ofInjustice, a gripping and enraging book from Raymond Bonner, a veteran investigativejournalist at the New York Times.Mr Elmore would spend 27 years on death row, despitestrong circumstantial evidence suggesting that he did not commit the crime. His capitalsentence was ultimately overturned thanks to the tireless efforts of Diana Holt, his lawyerand the book s hero, who spent more than a decade seeking justice on his behalf.
幾個月之后Jones說服這相同的大陪審團起訴 Edward Lee Elmore，一個23歲的黑人謀殺一位75歲的白人婦女Dorothy Edwards。她是在自己的臥室衣櫥被發現的，身上青腫并被刺了很多刀。Elmore先生在90天內就被判處死刑。這個殘酷的例子就是《不公正的剖析》這本書的主題，這本吸引人的書是一位紐約時報資深調查資訊記者雷蒙德邦納寫的。盡管大量的間接推測都表明Elmore先生并沒有犯罪，但他也將在死刑房耗盡27年。他死刑的罪狀最終在戴安娜霍爾特的不懈努力下推翻了，戴安娜霍爾特是他的律師也是這本書的主人翁，他花費了10多年的時間為Elmore 聲張正義。
Mentally disabled and barely literate, Mr Elmore was 14 years old when he dropped out ofschool. He could add and subtract using his fingers, but he could not tell the time, he did notknow the seasons and he could not understand directions. He became a neighbourhoodhandyman, and he cleaned Edwards s gutters and washed her windows two weeks before shewas killed. He was arrested because his fingerprint was found at her house.
智力上的缺陷以及知識的匱乏，Elmore在他14歲的時候就輟學了。他可以用手指進行加減但是他不能識別時間，不知道一年四季，沒有方向感。他成了鄰居街坊里的勤雜工，就在Dorothy Edwards被殺的前兩周，他還在清洗她家的水溝，擦洗他的窗戶。由于在Edwards家發現了他的指紋就被逮捕了。
At his trial, Mr Elmore was given two lawyers. One was known as the bourbon cowboy. Hewas twice arrested for drunk driving, and his breath smelled of alcohol in court. The otherlawyer referred to his client as a redheaded nigger. They had Mr Elmore testify, a rarity inmurder trials, and they called no other witnesses. The judge dismissed four potential jurorsbecause of their opposition to capital punishment. It took the jury less than three hours to convict Mr Elmore, and anadditional 50 minutes to sentence him to death.
在審訊過程中，Elmore 有兩位律師。一位被稱作波旁牛仔。這位律師曾兩次酒后駕駛被拘留，同時在法庭上他呼吸里有濃重的酒味。另一位提到的律師對于他的客戶來說就是紅發黑人。他們讓Elmore自己作證，這是在謀殺案件中少有的事，他們稱沒有其他證人了。法官解散了四個潛在的陪審團，正由于他們對死刑裁決的反對。這就使得陪審團在不到3個小時就判Elmore有罪，并在額外的50分鐘內就對他判了死刑。
But Mr Elmore did not die in jail. After the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that states could notexecute the mentally disabled, his sentence was commuted to life in prison, where he stillsits. Opponents of capital punishment may be familiar with arguments about its expense,unjust application and inefficacy as a deterrent. But it is another thing entirely to readabout patently biased judges, policemen who lie under oath and bloodthirsty prosecutors.
但是Elmore并沒有死于監獄。在2005年最高法院裁決認為美國各州不能對精神障礙者進行處死之后，他的宣判減刑成終生監禁。死刑的反對者可能熟于爭論其代價，即不公正的運用以及威懾性不強。但是這對于帶有明顯偏見的法官、可以在宣誓下撒謊的警察、嗜血的檢察官理解起來完全是另外的一回事。
In telling Mr Elmore s story, Mr Bonner deftly weaves in a brief history of American capitalpunishment and its discontents. Following a brief moratorium in 1972, when the SupremeCourt ruled that the death penalty s application violated the Eighth Amendment s ban oncruel and unusual punishment, it was reinstated in 38 states from 1976. By 2010, 1,226more executions had taken place, 1,010 of them in the South. Most of these executedinmates have been black; a vast majority of the victims in capital cases were white. But MrBonner s book is not a treatise against the death penalty. Rather, it is a dismal look atwhat happens in America s justice system when justice is absent.
在講述Elmore的故事的時候，奧邦納很快的就編織出了關于美國死刑刑罰的簡潔歷史，并表示不滿。隨后就是 1972年的一個簡潔的禁令在那時，這最高法院裁定這死刑刑法的運用違反了第八修正案禁止殘忍與異常的刑罰條款，到了1976年在38個州才恢復使用。截止2010年，執行了1226多次死刑的裁決，其中南方占到1010例。大部分的死囚犯是黑人，而大多數的受害者是資本階級白人。但是Bonner 的書不是一本反對死刑的論述。然而，它是對美國的司法系統當公正不在時所發生的事的一點心痛的看法。
