VOA双语新闻 Americans' Support for Death Penalty（在线收听）

Convicted killer Kenneth Boyd has become the 1,000 person to be executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

自从1976年美国恢复死刑后，已经执行了第一千宗死刑。

Boyd, 57, received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead early Friday, in a prison in the southern state of North Carolina.

被判定有罪的杀人犯57岁的波伊德星期五在北卡罗莱纳州被注射毒剂处决。

He had been convicted for the 1988 murder of his estranged wife and her father.

波伊德是因为1988年谋杀他分居的妻子和妻子的父亲而被处决的。

Boyd's execution was carried out after North Carolina Governor Mike Easley and the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final pleas for clemency.

波伊德的死刑是在北卡罗莱纳州州长伊斯雷和美国高级法院驳回他的最终上诉后执行的。

In 1977, convicted killer Gary Gilmore became the first person put to death in the United States after the U.S. Supreme Court ended a 10-year moratorium on executions.

1977年，在美国最高法院终止了历时10年的取消死刑决定之后，吉尔摩成为美国第一名被处死的犯人。

Capital punishment was blocked for a time because the court ruled that state death penalty statutes were too arbitrary. Many states rewrote their laws, and today, more than 3400 prisoners are awaiting execution.

死刑在美国之所以被禁止了一段时间，是因为最高法院认定各州的死刑判决法令过于草率。之后许多州已经修订了各自的法律，现在，全美国有超过3400人正在等待被处决。

But since 1973, 122 prisoners have been freed from death row, mostly due to the increasing use of DNA evidence.

但是自从1973年以来，有122名死刑犯获释，其中大部份借助于DNA鉴定的结果。

Death penalty opponents argue that the U.S. criminal justice system makes mistakes, and that some inmates may have been sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit. Susan Karamanian is a legal scholar at George Washington University Law School in Washington D.C.

反对死刑的人认为，美国的司法体系会犯错误，使得有些犯人因为自己并没有犯的罪而被判死刑。卡拉马尼安是乔治华盛顿大学法学院的教授。

"We have heard year after year, month after month, day after day, horror stories about people who have been tried and convicted in a system that is not fair," she said.

她说：“我们年复一年、月复一月、日复一日地听到许多有关人们在不公正的体制下被审判和定罪的骇人听闻的故事。”

Ms. Karamanian says the public debate about capital punishment used to be about whether it deterred crime. But she says public opinion is now shifting to question whether the U.S. justice system adequately protects innocent people from execution.

卡拉马尼安教授说，有关死刑的公众辩论，过去集中在死刑能否吓阻犯罪的问题上。但是现在公众舆论的注意力已经转移到美国的司法体系能否有效保护无辜的人不被处决的问题上。

An October Gallup poll found that about two-thirds of Americans still support the death penalty. That compares with a high of 80 percent of Americans in 1994. And when respondents are given a choice of life in prison without parole, support for the death penalty falls to just 50 percent.

10月份的盖洛普民意测验显示，有大约三分之二的美国人仍然支持死刑。而1994年时，美国支持死刑的人更多，达80%。当被问及在无假释无期徒刑和死刑之间进行选择时，支持死刑的人则下降到50%。

Ms. Karamanian attributes the change in opinion partly to a trend, beginning in the 1990s, of highly qualified lawyers representing inmates on death row and raising issues not addressed in the past.

卡拉马尼安教授把这种改变的部份根源归于90年代以来的一种趋向。当时一些非常能干的律师为死刑犯辩护，从而提出了许多未曾论及的问题。

"When you have prominent lawyers, members of the Bar [American Bar Association], getting active in these cases, one, you have a better standard of representation, but two, word is getting out," she said.

她说：“当你有著名律师积极为你辩护时，首先，提高了你的法律代表水平；其次，你的情况会广为传扬。”

For example, Virginia Governor Mark Warner recently blocked the execution of Robin Lovitt, who would have been the 1,000h person to be executed in the United States. One of Mr. Lovitt's attorneys was Kenneth Starr, who led the special investigation into President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

举例来说，维吉尼亚州长沃纳最近就阻止了对洛维特的死刑执行。否则，洛维特就会成为第一千名被处死的死刑犯了。而洛维特的律师之一就是曾经在90年代领导了针对克林顿总统的特别调查的斯塔尔。

Mr. Starr successfully argued that Mr. Lovitt deserved clemency because a Virginia court clerk had wrongly discarded DNA evidence. Instead of being executed, Mr. Lovitt will now spend his life in prison for killing a night manager in a pool hall.

斯塔尔成功地辩解说，洛维特应该得到宽恕，因为一名维吉尼亚州的法院办事员错误地丢弃了DNA证据。现在，据控杀害一名游泳池夜班经理的洛维特没有被处决，而是在监狱度其余生。

Analysts say another factor influencing public opinion is the growing opposition to capital punishment among U.S. Catholics.

分析人士说，另外一个左右美国公众舆论的因素是，美国天主教徒越来越反对死刑。

In November, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops overwhelmingly approved a new statement opposing the death penalty. The bishops' first comprehensive statement on capital punishment in 25 years said that, "the sanction of death violates respect for human life and dignity."

今年11月，天主教美国主教团一致通过一项反对死刑的声明。美国主教团在这份25年来首度全面论述死刑问题的声明里说，“死刑违犯了对人类生命的尊重。”

Still, advocates of the death penalty argue that abolishing capital punishment would hurt crime victims and their families.

然而，死刑的拥护者们表示废除死刑可能伤害到刑事犯罪的受害者和他们的家人们。

Michael Paranzino is the head of Throw Away the Key, a group in Maryland that advocates tough sentences for criminals.

帕兰兹诺是马里兰州一个名为“丢掉钥匙”支持死刑的团体组织的负责人。

"The idea that we would mourn the 1,000th murderer that died when there are 600,000 families who will never recover - that's where I think this debate has to be focused -- the lasting harm to entire families when people are murdered," he said.

他说：“在为第1000名杀人犯被处决而感到悲哀的时候，要想到那60万亲人心头永远无法愈合的伤痛。我们有关死刑的辩论当有的焦点是：谋杀对被害人全家带来永久持续的伤害。”

Regardless of how the American public feels about capital punishment, statistics from the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington D.C. show that death sentences nationwide have dropped by 50 percent since the late 1990s and executions carried out have declined by 40 percent.

无论美国民众对死刑的观点如何，华盛顿的“死刑信息中心”的统计数字显示，自90年代以来，美国全国的死刑判决率下降了50%，而死刑的执行率则下降了40%。