【经济学人】死刑已失宠 | 2016.11.19 | 总第732期

FEW people have had a more tumultuous 18 months than Nebraska’s ten death-row inmates. In May 2015 the Nebraska legislature voted to abolish capital punishment, which would have converted their sentences tolife imprisonment. The governor, Pete Ricketts, vetoed the legislation but was overridden. He then poured $400,000 of his family’s money into financing a referendum to reinstate the death penalty, which appeared on the ballot on November 8th and passed with 61% of Nebraskans’ support.

在过去的18个月里，没有人能比美国内布拉斯加州死囚区的十名囚犯过得更加动荡不安了。因为在2015年5月内布拉斯加州议会通过投票废除了死刑，这本来会让死囚区内的十名死刑犯的判决改成终身监禁。州长皮特•里克茨原本否决这项立案，但是被推翻了。（期待您的翻译，明天会有针对这句话的读者试译详解哟~）

• Tumultuous：嘈杂的；喧嚣的；热烈的；欢腾的

• death-row：死囚区；死囚牢房

• legislature：【美国】特指州议会；立法机关；

• capital punishment：死刑

• vetoed：n.否决权；拒绝认可；禁止

• referendum：n.全民公决；公投

• v.行使否决权；拒绝认可；禁止；拒不接受

• Reinstate:  vt.使恢复原职;使恢复原有权利

放我出去去去去~（想太多）

The proposition was one of three pro-death-penalty measures on state ballots. Two passed with ample margins, and prospects for the third look promising. In Oklahoma, a state that attracted fierce criticism for botching a lethal injection in 2014, voters backed a measure to give capital punishment constitutional protection. Progressive California has more condemned inmates than any other state; voters there rejected a proposition to repeal capital punishment. Though it has yet to be certified, another measure that aims to speed up executions seems likely to triumph. According to Mike Ramos, the district attorney forSan Bernardino County who championed that bill, “Even in a deep blue state like California, most people still feel the only justice for the worst of the worst is the death penalty.”

这项提议是州公投中三项支持死刑的措施之一。其中的两项以巨大优势通过，另外一项也有很有可能通过。2014年，美国的俄克拉荷马州因在执行注射死刑时屡屡发生失误而受到了人们猛烈的批评，因此选民们支持出台一项给予死刑法律保护措施。繁荣发展的加利福尼亚州比其他任何一个州有更多已定罪的囚犯，当地选民否决了一项废除死刑的提案。虽然这还有待证实，但是另一项针对加快实施死刑的措施似乎很可能获得成功。根据拥护这项提案的加利福尼亚州圣伯纳丁诺郡地方检察官，迈克•拉莫斯所说的：“甚至在像由民主党掌权的加利福尼亚州，大多数人依然认为对于大恶之人处以死刑就是唯一的正义。”

• lethal injection：注射死刑

• district attorney：（美国）地方检察官

Yet polls show that capital punishment currently enjoys its lowest levels of support in four decades. Actual executions have also declined nationally (see chart). In 1999, 98 convicted criminals were executed. Last year just 28 were. Nebraska has not actually executed anyone since 1997, while California last did so in 2006.

然而，民意调查显示目前对死刑的支持率处于最近40年来的最低点。实际执行的死刑在全国范围内也已经减少了（见图表），在1999年，有98名罪犯被处决，而在去年仅有28名。内布拉斯加州在1997年以后就没有执行过死刑，而加利福利亚州上一次对囚犯执行死刑则是在2006年。

美国被判死刑人数在下降

Robert Dunham at the Death Penalty Information Centre, a non-profit organisation, does not interpretthe success of pro-death penalty propositions as a sign that attitudes are hardening again. “During periods of climate change, there are extreme storms,” he points out. “But when you step back and look at general patterns—despite those isolated storms—the direction of change is clear.”

非营利性组织死刑信息中心的罗伯特•邓纳姆并没有把支持死刑提案的成功看作是人们态度变得强硬的信号。他指出：“在气候变化的时期，会有极端的风暴天气出现。但当你跳出风暴中心，俯瞰总体格局时，你会发现尽管会有局部风暴，但是改变的方向是清晰可见的。”

• Interpret as: 把……理解为；把……看作

• step back：跳出（某事物的圈子）看问题

Carol Steiker, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-author of a new book entitled “Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment”, says people rarely take the time to understand ballot initiatives (one voter in Palo Alto says it took him hours to educate himself about the 17 measures on California’s ballot). A better bellwether of what will happen to the death penalty, MsSteiker says, is sentencing. In 1996, 315 convicts were given death sentences. In 2015 only 49 were. This suggests that prosecutors, jurors and judges have all grown warier of capital punishment.

哈佛法学院的教授，同时也是新书《求死：最高法院和死刑》的作者之一卡罗尔•史泰勒谈到，人们很少真正花时间去了解选民公投（帕洛阿尔托的一位选民说自己花了好几个小时才明白加州公投的17个衡量标准）。史泰勒女士说，死刑到底会不会退出历史舞台还要看判决结果。1996年，有315名罪犯被判处死刑。而在2015年，只有49人被处以死刑。这也就意味着检察官、陪审员和法官都对是否判处死刑这件事变得小心翼翼。

• Bellwether: n.征兆，前导，领头羊

• Warier: adj.小心翼翼的

嘣嘣嘣~但以后估计也不用上天了

Beyond Nebraska, Oklahoma and California, local election results refute the idea that Americans are rediscovering their enthusiasm for capital punishment. Voters in Washington and Oregon stuck with governors who had enforced moratoriums on capital punishment. Jefferson County sentences more criminals to death than any other county in Alabama, but the incumbent Republican district attorney lost to Charles Todd Henderson, a Democrat who says he is “personally opposed” to executions. Similar upsets occurred in district-attorney races in Hillsborough County, Florida and Harris County, Texas—both among the most prolific death-sentencing counties in the country. MsSteiker believes that if you ask people whether they support capital punishment in the abstract, they tend to say yes. But abstract approval does not always translate into concrete backing. Unless there is a sustained rise in violent crime, she believes support for capital punishment will continue to wane.

在内布拉斯卡、俄克拉荷马和加利福利亚当地的投票结果显示，美国并没有重拾对死刑的“热情”。华盛顿和俄勒冈的选民们坚定不移地支持大力推行废除死刑的州长。杰斐逊郡是阿拉巴马州判处死刑数量最多的郡，但是在任的共和党地区检察官输给了查尔斯•陶德•亨德森，作为一位自由党派人士，他表示他个人反对执行死刑。类似的混乱情景还出现在佛罗里达的希尔斯伯勒郡和德克萨斯的哈里斯郡的地方检察官竞争中，而这两个地方都是美国死刑判处率很高的郡。史泰勒女士认为，如果在理论上问美国人民他们是否支持死刑，他们就偏向给出肯定的答案。但是，这种情况下的肯定并不意味着是牢固的支持。她还认为，除非暴力犯罪率骤增，否则反对死刑的呼声不会增加。

• Refute:v.驳斥，反对

• Moratorium: n.暂停，中止

• Incumbent: adj.在职的

翻译 ▍艾艾；环环 ；红颜；sta；小西瓜

审核 ▍Arias

编辑 ▍毛毛