The Real Reason to End the Death Penalty
April 2021 When intellectuals talk about the death penalty, they talk about things like whether it's permissible for the state to take someone's life, whether the death penalty acts as a deterrent, and whether more death sentences are given to some groups than others.
2021年4月 当知识分子谈论死刑时，他们谈论的是国家是否允许夺取某人的生命、死刑是否具有威慑作用、以及是否对某些群体判处的死刑比其他群体更多。
But in practice the debate about the death penalty is not about whether it's ok to kill murderers.
但实际上，关于死刑的争论并不是关于是否可以杀死杀人犯。
It's about whether it's ok to kill
这是关于是否可以杀人
innocent people, because at least 4% of people on death row are innocent .
无辜的人，因为至少有4%的死囚是无辜的。
When I was a kid I imagined that it was unusual for people to be convicted of crimes they hadn't committed, and that in murder cases especially this must be very rare.
当我还是个孩子的时候，我想象人们因没有犯下的罪行而被定罪是不寻常的，尤其是在谋杀案件中，这种情况一定非常罕见。
Far from it.
远非如此。
Now, thanks to organizations like the Innocence Project , we see a constant stream of stories about murder convictions being overturned after new
现在，多亏了“无罪计划”这样的组织，我们看到源源不断的关于谋杀定罪在新的判决后被推翻的故事。
evidence emerges.
证据出现。
Sometimes the police and prosecutors were just very sloppy.
有时警察和检察官非常草率。
Sometimes they were crooked, and knew full well they were convicting an innocent person.
有时他们是不诚实的，并且很清楚他们正在给一个无辜的人定罪。
Kenneth Adams and three other men spent 18 years in prison on a murder conviction.
肯尼思·亚当斯 (Kenneth Adams) 和另外三名男子因谋杀罪被判入狱 18 年。
They were exonerated after DNA testing implicated three different men, two of whom later confessed.
在 DNA 测试发现三名不同的男子参与其中后，他们被证明无罪，其中两人后来承认了这一点。
The police had been told about the other men early in the investigation, but never
警方在调查初期就已获悉其他男子的情况，但从未得知
followed up the lead.
紧随其后。
Keith Harward spent 33 years in prison on a murder conviction.
基思·哈沃德 (Keith Harward) 因谋杀罪入狱 33 年。
He was convicted because "experts" said his teeth matched photos of bite marks on one victim.
他被定罪是因为“专家”说他的牙齿与一名受害者身上的咬痕照片相符。
He was exonerated after DNA testing showed the murder had been committed by another man, Jerry Crotty.
DNA 检测显示谋杀案是另一名男子杰里·克罗蒂所为，之后他被无罪释放。
Ricky Jackson and two other men spent 39 years in prison after being convicted of murder on the testimony of a 12 year old boy, who later
瑞奇·杰克逊 (Ricky Jackson) 和另外两名男子因一名 12 岁男孩的证词被判犯有谋杀罪，并在监狱中度过了 39 年。
recanted and said he'd been coerced by police.
他否认了这一点，并表示自己是被警察胁迫的。
Multiple people have confirmed the boy was elsewhere at the time.
多人证实男孩当时在其他地方。
The three men were exonerated after the county prosecutor dropped the charges, saying "The state is conceding the obvious." Alfred Brown spent 12 years in prison on a murder conviction, including 10 years on death row.
县检察官撤销指控并表示“国家承认了显而易见的事实”后，这三人被无罪释放。阿尔弗雷德·布朗因谋杀罪入狱 12 年，其中 10 年是死囚牢房。
He was exonerated after it was discovered that the assistant district attorney had concealed phone
在发现助理地方检察官隐藏电话后，他被无罪释放
records proving he could not have committed the crimes.
记录证明他不可能犯下这些罪行。
Glenn Ford spent 29 years on death row after having been convicted of murder.
格伦·福特 (Glenn Ford) 被判谋杀罪后，在死囚牢房里度过了 29 年。
He was exonerated after new evidence proved he was not even at the scene when the murder occurred.
新证据证明谋杀案发生时他根本不在现场，因此他被无罪释放。
The attorneys assigned to represent him had never tried a jury case before.
指定代表他的律师以前从未审理过陪审团案件。
Cameron Willingham was actually executed in 2004 by lethal injection.
卡梅伦·威林厄姆实际上于 2004 年被注射死刑。
The "expert" who testified that he deliberately set fire to his
作证称他故意放火的“专家”
house has since been discredited.
房子从此就名誉扫地了。
A re-examination of the case ordered by the state of Texas in 2009 concluded that "a finding of arson could not be sustained." Rich Glossip has spent 20 years on death row after being convicted of murder on the testimony of the actual killer, who escaped with a life sentence in return for implicating him.
2009年，得克萨斯州下令对该案进行重新审查，得出的结论是“纵火案的认定不能成立”。里奇·格洛西普 (Rich Glossip) 在真凶的证词下被判犯有谋杀罪，在死囚牢房中度过了 20 年。凶手因牵连他而被判处无期徒刑，因此得以逃脱。
In 2015 he came within minutes of execution before it emerged that Oklahoma had
2015 年，他在被处决后几分钟内就被释放了，之后俄克拉荷马州才发现
been planning to kill him with an illegal combination of drugs.
计划用非法药物组合杀死他
They still plan to go ahead with the execution, perhaps as soon as this summer, despite new evidence exonerating him.
尽管有新的证据表明他无罪，但他们仍计划继续执行死刑，也许最早在今年夏天。
I could go on.
我还可以继续说下去。
There are hundreds of similar cases.
类似的案例还有数百个。
In Florida alone, 29 death row prisoners have been exonerated so far.
仅在佛罗里达州，迄今为止就有 29 名死囚被无罪释放。
Far from being rare, wrongful murder convictions are very common .
错误的谋杀定罪并非罕见，而是很常见。
Police are under pressure to solve a crime that has gotten a lot
警方面临破案的压力
of attention.
的关注。
When they find a suspect, they want to believe he's guilty, and ignore or even destroy evidence suggesting otherwise.
当他们找到嫌疑人时，他们希望相信他有罪，而忽略甚至销毁表明事实并非如此的证据。
District attorneys want to be seen as effective and tough on crime, and in order to win convictions are willing to manipulate witnesses and withhold evidence.
地方检察官希望被视为有效且严厉地打击犯罪，为了赢得定罪，他们愿意操纵证人并扣留证据。
Court-appointed defense attorneys are overworked and often incompetent.
法院指定的辩护律师工作过度，而且往往不称职。
There's a ready supply of criminals willing to give false testimony in return for a lighter sentence,
有大量的罪犯愿意提供虚假证言以换取较轻的刑罚，
suggestible witnesses who can be made to say whatever police want, and bogus "experts" eager to claim that science proves the defendant is guilty.
受暗示的证人可以说出警察想要说的任何话，而虚假的“专家”则急于声称科学证明被告有罪。
And juries want to believe them, since otherwise some terrible crime remains unsolved.
陪审团希望相信他们，否则一些可怕的犯罪仍然悬而未决。
This circus of incompetence and dishonesty is the real issue with the death penalty.
这种无能和不诚实的马戏团才是死刑的真正问题。
We don't even reach the point where theoretical questions about the moral justification or effectiveness of capital
我们甚至还没有达到提出关于资本的道德正当性或有效性的理论问题的程度。
punishment start to matter, because so many of the people sentenced to death are actually innocent.
惩罚开始变得重要，因为许多被判处死刑的人实际上是无辜的。
Whatever it means in theory, in practice capital punishment means killing innocent people.
无论理论上意味着什么，在实践中死刑意味着杀害无辜者。
Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Jessica Livingston, and Don Knight for reading drafts of this.
感谢 Trevor Blackwell、Jessica Livingston 和 Don Knight 阅读本文的草稿。
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