But Mr Elmore did not die in jail. After the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that states could notexecute the mentally disabled, his sentence was commuted to life in prison, where he stillsits. Opponents of capital punishment may be familiar with arguments about its expense,unjust application and inefficacy as a deterrent. But it is another thing entirely to readabout patently biased judges, policemen who lie under oath and bloodthirsty prosecutors.
但是Elmore并没有死于监狱。在2005年最高法院裁决认为美国各州不能对精神障碍者进行处死之后,他的宣判减刑成终生监禁。死刑的反对者可能熟于争论其代价,即不公正的运用以及威慑性不强。但是这对于带有明显偏见的法官、可以在宣誓下撒谎的警察、嗜血的检察官理解起来完全是另外的一回事。
In telling Mr Elmore s story, Mr Bonner deftly weaves in a brief history of American capitalpunishment and its discontents. Following a brief moratorium in 1972, when the SupremeCourt ruled that the death penalty s application violated the Eighth Amendment s ban oncruel and unusual punishment, it was reinstated in 38 states from 1976. By 2010, 1,226more executions had taken place, 1,010 of them in the South. Most of these executedinmates have been black; a vast majority of the victims in capital cases were white. But MrBonner s book is not a treatise against the death penalty. Rather, it is a dismal look atwhat happens in America s justice system when justice is absent.
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