美国国家公共电台 NPR How Nashville Man Cleared Of 'Homosexual Acts' Conviction Paves The Way

How Nashville Man Cleared Of 'Homosexual Acts' Conviction Paves The Way

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Now, for much of the history of this country, laws banning gay sex were on the books in many states. Even after the Supreme² Court struck down those laws, many convictions still remain on people's records. Tony Gonzalez of member station WPLN reports on an effort to clear some of those records.

TONY GONZALEZ, BYLINE³: The day the Supreme Court ruling came down in March, 2003, it led the evening news, like this from NBC.

(SOUNDBITE OF NBC BROADCAST)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: At rallies across the nation, gay rights advocates celebrated⁴ their legal victory, a ruling so broad, it surprised even many of them.

GONZALEZ: The court struck down state laws that made homosexual conduct a crime. And overnight, prosecutions⁶ under so-called sodomy laws ended. But for some, the decision came too late. Their charges were logged in court files and subject to background searches. That's what brought a Nashville man this summer to seek out attorney Daniel Horwitz. The man sought expungement⁷, the clearing of his record.

DANIEL HORWITZ: There was a conviction on there. And that conviction, once I - once I pulled the file, was a 1995 misdemeanor conviction for homosexual acts.

GONZALEZ: He'd not seen such a case, was surprised to find one from the mid-90s, just one year before Tennessee ended its Homosexual Practices Act.

HORWITZ: It's extraordinary to most people that these prosecutions even occurred at all. But this gentleman had a problem.

GONZALEZ: The man seeking expungement was issued a citation⁸ 21 years ago for something that took place in his apartment. He went to court, pleaded guilty. Now he has identified only as John Doe for fear of being outed. He declined to be interviewed.

HORWITZ: As most people know, criminal convictions follow you. And lots of people will not hire you if you have them. Somebody pulls a criminal background check and it doesn't come back completely clean, people are often ineligible⁹ for housing, ineligible for employment and discriminated¹⁰ against in all sorts of areas of civic¹¹ life.

GONZALEZ: For Horwitz, expungements are routine - but not this one. The passage of so much time seemingly left no legal path. The fact the Supreme Court had struck down sodomy laws was not enough.

HORWITZ: So we had to, you know, dust off the textbooks and find a new way to move forward here.

GONZALEZ: His aha moment was hitting on an old common law doctrine¹² that hadn't been used in a Tennessee courtroom in at least a century. With finesse¹³, it got his case to a judge. Where he next found help was also unexpected.

GLENN FUNK: Glenn Funk, the district attorney for Nashville, Davidson County.

GONZALEZ: The top city prosecutor¹⁴, whose team handles 100,000 criminal cases a year, isn't inclined to worry about old convictions. But he was struck by what he calls the ingenious approach by Horwitz and a different type of conviction, a moral one.

FUNK: I do not believe that people should be punished in a criminal prosecution⁵ based on - based on the way they were born.

GONZALEZ: The prosecutor joined the filing in favor of expungement.

FUNK: In 1995, the police department was enforcing a law that had been enacted¹⁵ by the Tennessee Legislature. In 2016, we have the opportunity to correct a wrong. And we're doing that.

GONZALEZ: As of this month, the court clerk is shredding¹⁶ John Doe's records and clearing them from an online database. However, charges against an additional 41 men have come to light. The prosecutor says he alone can't clear their names. But the unusual legal path to do so is now established. For NPR News, I'm Tony Gonzalez in Nashville.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

5 prosecution   

n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营

参考例句：

• The Smiths brought a prosecution against the organizers.史密斯家对组织者们提出起诉。
• He attempts to rebut the assertion made by the prosecution witness.他试图反驳原告方证人所作的断言。

6 prosecutions   

起诉( prosecution的名词复数 )； 原告； 实施； 从事

参考例句：

• It is the duty of the Attorney-General to institute prosecutions. 检察总长负责提起公诉。
• Since World War II, the government has been active in its antitrust prosecutions. 第二次世界大战以来，政府积极地进行着反对托拉斯的检举活动。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

7 expungement   

n.expunge（擦去，拭去）的变形

参考例句：

8 citation   

n.引用，引证，引用文；传票

参考例句：

• He had to sign the proposition for the citation.他只好在受奖申请书上签了字。
• The court could issue a citation and fine Ms. Robbins.法庭可能会发传票，对罗宾斯女士处以罚款。

9 ineligible   

adj.无资格的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The new rules have made thousands more people ineligible for legal aid.新规定使另外数千人不符合接受法律援助的资格。
• The country had been declared ineligible for World Bank lending.这个国家已被宣布没有资格获得世界银行的贷款。

10 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
• Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视？

11 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。

12 doctrine   

n.教义；主义；学说

参考例句：

• He was impelled to proclaim his doctrine.他不得不宣扬他的教义。
• The council met to consider changes to doctrine.宗教议会开会考虑更改教义。

13 finesse   

n.精密技巧，灵巧，手腕

参考例句：

• It was a disappointing performance which lacked finesse.那场演出缺乏技巧，令人失望。
• Lillian Hellman's plays are marked by insight and finesse.莉莲.赫尔曼的巨作以富有洞察力和写作技巧著称。

14 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

15 enacted   

制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• legislation enacted by parliament 由议会通过的法律
• Outside in the little lobby another scene was begin enacted. 外面的小休息室里又是另一番景象。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

16 shredding   

v.撕碎，切碎( shred的现在分词 )；用撕毁机撕毁（文件）

参考例句：

• Like the Tehran experience, the shredding may be all for naught. 如同德黑兰事件中的情况一样，切碎文件可能是徒劳的。 来自时文部分
• How shredding began is subject to some guesswork. 粉碎处理行业的起源是个有争议的问题。 来自时文部分