VOA标准英语2013--US Trial to Focus on Race, Guns, Self-Defense

 

US Trial to Focus on Race, Guns, Self-Defense¹

The shooting of black teenager Trayvon Martin sparked protests last year when his killer² - an Hispanic man - was not charged.

In a legal reversal 44 days later, George Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder.

Martin was visiting his father’s fiancée - he was wearing a grey hoodie - prompting some to say Zimmerman profiled Martin as a dangerous black man, only on his looks. Zimmerman says Martin attacked him and he fired the gun in self-defense.

Five of the six Zimmerman jurors are white. All are female. Attorney Mark Eiglarsh said, “Women can generally be more emotional, more sympathetic, and that generally would favor the prosecution³.”

Jennifer Page has been a prosecutor⁴, and now is a criminal defense attorney. She said the advantage is with Zimmerman’s defense.

“The fact that he is the only witness is favorable. His position will be, this is what happened, and tragically⁵ the person also involved is dead and won’t be able to rebut⁶ that. The state on the other hand has had a few problems. Two of their witnesses have been found to be untruthful about things, including Trayvon’s girlfriend,” she said.

Page said the trial won’t set a precedent⁷, but it’s noteworthy because it opens more dialogue on two controversial issues in the U.S. - race and guns. The trial is expected to last up to one month.

1 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

2 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

3 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。

4 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。

5 tragically   

adv. 悲剧地，悲惨地

参考例句：

• Their daughter was tragically killed in a road accident. 他们的女儿不幸死于车祸。
• Her father died tragically in a car crash. 她父亲在一场车祸中惨死。

6 rebut   

v.辩驳，驳回

参考例句：

• He attempted to rebut the assertions made by the prosecution witness.他试图反驳控方证人所作的断言。
• This open letter is to rebut the argument of abstractionism.这封公开信是反驳抽象派论点的。

7 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。