美国国家公共电台 NPR Supreme Court Strikes Down Conviction Of Mississippi Man On Death Row For 22 Years

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We turn now to news out of the Supreme¹ Court. The court has struck down the conviction of an African American death row inmate² who was prosecuted³ six times for the same crime and by the same prosecutor⁴. The Mississippi Supreme Court said three times that the prosecutor had a history of prosecutorial⁵ misconduct and racial bias⁶ in jury selection. This could determine the fate of a Mississippi man who has been in jail for nearly a quarter of a century. NPR's Nina Totenberg is in our studios to talk more about this.

Hi, Nina.

NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE⁷: Hi, Rachel.

MARTIN: Explain the case for us.

TOTENBERG: Well, the crime was a horrific crime. It was the murder of four people at a furniture store in Winona, Miss. It's a tiny, 5,000-person town; 53 to 46% white - black-white, so there's a black majority. And Curtis Flowers was arrested. As far as I can tell, there was - you know, there were no eyewitnesses⁸ to this crime, at least living. And there wasn't a great DNA⁹ kind of case.

MARTIN: Right.

TOTENBERG: And he was - the first - he was convicted three times. Three times, the Mississippi Supreme Court said that the prosecutor had committed prosecutorial misconduct - and not some trivial things, things like lying about evidence that didn't exist and discrimination in the selection of juries.

MARTIN: Then how is he prosecuted three additional times?

TOTENBERG: Well, the next two times, it's the same prosecutor. There are more - in each case, there are more than one black juror. And the jury deadlocks¹⁰. And then, in the sixth case, there's only one, and he's convicted. And the Mississippi Supreme Court upholds that conviction, and the Supreme Court today reversed the conviction because of jury discrimination.

MARTIN: So this was a 7-2 decision. The dissenters¹¹ here were Justice Thomas and Justice Gorsuch. Justice Thomas, I understand, wrote the opinion. He is the only black justice on the court. What did he have to say about this?

TOTENBERG: Well, Justice Thomas has always maintained that discrimination in jury selection is just not something the court should be involved in determining and that it's not for the defense¹² to raise this - that it's only the jurors who can object to being discriminated¹³ against. Today, he wrote an opinion for himself and Justice Thomas, and he said - he noted¹⁴ that the court had at least once before had this case before it and sent it back for re-evaluation. And he said that he couldn't see that they should have looked at it a second time. And he said the court's action only encourages the litigation and re-litigation of criminal trials in the media to the potential detriment¹⁵ of all parties, including defendants¹⁶. The media often seeks to titillate¹⁷ rather than educate and inform. And that's been his position. His dissenting¹⁸ opinion is, like, twice as long as the majority opinion - written, I should say by Justice Kavanaugh.

MARTIN: So what does this mean for the man at the center of it all, Curtis Flowers? Does he go free?

TOTENBERG: No. The - Mississippi can try him again. I don't think they probably can try him in Winona or with that prosecutor. That would not be wise. But if they think that they have a good case, they can try him again. He's been in prison for 22 years. These are tough cases for states to decide when there's an old case to try to see if they have anything that they can persuade a jury that this guy is guilty. And, you know, sometimes, they just have to bite the bullet and say, no, we don't. And we've got to let him go.

MARTIN: We'll see. NPR's Nina Totenberg on the latest decision out of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Nina, thank you. We appreciate it.

TOTENBERG: Thank you.

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1 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。

2 inmate   

n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人

参考例句：

• I am an inmate of that hospital.我住在那家医院。
• The prisoner is his inmate.那个囚犯和他同住一起。

3 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

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 prosecutorial   

公诉人的，原告的； 起诉的

参考例句：

• If prosecutorial misconduct results in a mistrial, a later prosecution may be barred. 如果检察官的不轨行为导致审判无效，再行起诉可能会被除数禁止。 来自口语例句
• Prosecutorial supervision is required according to public power attribution of civil litigation. 民事诉讼的个性和检察监督是对立统一的关系，并不排斥检察监督。

6 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

7 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。

8 eyewitnesses   

目击者( eyewitness的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The examination of all the eyewitnesses took a week. 对所有证人的质询用了一周的时间。
• Several eyewitnesses testified that they saw the officers hit Miller in the face. 几位目击证人证明他们看见那几个警官打了米勒的脸。

9 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

10 deadlocks   

僵局( deadlock的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They deluge Washington with proposals to break deadlocks. 他们使华盛顿淹没在试图打开僵局的各种各样的建议里。
• Pennsylvania produced the first of the game's two deadlocks at 5:00 of the second quarter. 这次比赛出现两次平局，在第二个四分之一场的第五分钟宾夕法尼亚州队第一次将比分拉平。

11 dissenters   

n.持异议者，持不同意见者( dissenter的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He attacked the indulgence shown to religious dissenters. 他抨击对宗教上持不同政见者表现出的宽容。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• (The dissenters would have allowed even more leeway to the Secretary.) （持异议者还会给行政长官留有更多的余地。） 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

12 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。

13 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？

14 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

15 detriment   

n.损害；损害物，造成损害的根源

参考例句：

• Smoking is a detriment to one's health.吸烟危害健康。
• His lack of education is a serious detriment to his career.他的未受教育对他的事业是一种严重的妨碍。

16 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

17 titillate   

v.挑逗；使兴奋

参考例句：

• The pictures were not meant to titillate audiences.图片本意不是为了挑逗观众。
• In review a novel,you shall try to titillate rather than satiate the reader's interest.评论一本小说的时候，你应想办法刺激而不是满足读者的兴趣。

18 dissenting   

adj.不同意的

参考例句：

• He can't tolerate dissenting views. 他不能容纳不同意见。
• A dissenting opinion came from the aunt . 姑妈却提出不赞同的意见。