美国国家公共电台 NPR Bystanders To Fatal Overdoses Increasingly Becoming Criminal Defendants

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Law enforcement officials are trying a new response to massive numbers of deaths from opioids. What some police are now doing is treating overdose sites as crime scenes, sometimes charging friends and loved ones with murder. Here's Bobby Allyn of member station WHYY.

BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE¹: Alexis Santa Barbara is a 39-year-old mother of three who lives in a working-class suburb of Philadelphia. Santa Barbara had been prescribed Percocet to treat back pain, but when the drug became unavailable, she turned to heroin². Across the street from her, her neighbor was also struggling with opioid addiction⁴. One evening in late March, that neighbor gave Santa Barbara $10 and asked if she'd find him some heroin.

EMILY MANO: He just asked her to grab it. So she did.

ALLYN: Emily Mano is Santa Barbara's is 18-year-old daughter.

MANO: So doesn't always do stuff like that. It was just a favor. She'd never mean to harm someone. Never.

ALLYN: To prosecutors⁵, it wasn't just a favor. It was a crime. Authorities say Santa Barbara obtained heroin laced with the powerful synthetic⁶ drug Fentanyl. Shortly after, court records show, Santa Barbara texted her neighbor, are you OK? He wasn't. George Yacoubian is Santa Barbara's lawyer.

GEORGE YACOUBIAN: His wife comes home and finds him collapsed⁷ on the floor of the bedroom.

ALLYN: Emergency responders pronounced the neighbor dead on the scene. Santa Barbara is now in jail awaiting trial on third-degree murder charges. Before she turned herself in, she for the first time revealed her addiction to her daughter.

MANO: She sat me down and she said that something bad happened, and she said that she would be getting into trouble.

ALLYN: More and more, trouble is following fellow drug users, friends and relatives of those dying from overdoses. With the country's opioid crisis widening, bystanders to fatal overdoses are increasingly becoming criminal defendants⁸. In Pennsylvania, the number of people charged with murder from an accidental overdose went from 15 in 2013 to 205 last year. In roughly the same period, such cases tripled nationwide. That's according to the Oakland-based nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance. The group released a study finding that laws passed during the crack epidemic⁹ in the 1980s to combat dealers¹¹ are being used again. But the Alliance's Lindsay LaSalle says now prosecutors are stretching the definition of dealer¹⁰ to include almost anyone tied to drug use.

LINDSAY LASALLE: You are often charging someone who themselves was using or sharing with the person that died. And, you know, with a different twist of fate, it could have been that person that died and the other person being charged.

ALLYN: There's no evidence, LaSalle says, that the fear of prison stops an addict³ from using. And she says if a supplier is arrested, another one quickly pops up.

LASALLE: Part of this is about prosecutors wanting to feel responsive to the gravity of the moment.

ALLYN: In the Cincinnati area, which is seeing a surge in opioid deaths, police commander Tom Fallon leads a team of a dozen investigators¹² on call 24/7. He says drug death prosecutions¹³ show families of victims that...

TOM FALLON: Their life mattered. And the message we want to get out to drug dealers is, if you sell drugs that kill somebody, you're going to go away, and you're going to go away for a long time.

ALLYN: Prosecutors in Santa Barbara's case wouldn't talk for this story, but she is facing 20 to 40 years in prison, even though she wasn't present when her neighbor died. Again, her daughter, Emily.

MANO: She had a clean record, and now it's like she's the worst thing that ever happened.

ALLYN: To win in court, prosecutors don't have to show that Santa Barbara intended to kill her neighbor, only that the drugs she gave him were lethal¹⁴. Bobby Allyn, NPR News.

1 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。

2 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

3 addict   

v.使沉溺；使上瘾；n.沉溺于不良嗜好的人

参考例句：

• He became gambling addict,and lost all his possessions.他习染上了赌博，最终输掉了全部家产。
• He assisted a drug addict to escape from drug but failed firstly.一开始他帮助一个吸毒者戒毒但失败了。

4 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

5 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

6 synthetic   

adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品

参考例句：

• We felt the salesman's synthetic friendliness.我们感觉到那位销售员的虚情假意。
• It's a synthetic diamond.这是人造钻石。

7 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

8 defendants   

被告( defendant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The courts heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession. 法官审判时发现6位被告人曾被迫承认罪行。
• As in courts, the defendants are represented by legal counsel. 与法院相同，被告有辩护律师作为代表。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

9 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

10 dealer   

n.商人，贩子

参考例句：

• The dealer spent hours bargaining for the painting.那个商人为购买那幅画花了几个小时讨价还价。
• The dealer reduced the price for cash down.这家商店对付现金的人减价优惠。

11 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

12 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 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

14 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。