时间:2019-01-13 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2012年(八月)


英语课

 



For Freed Inmate 1, Painful Memories of Life on Death Row


The execution in Texas of a man alleged 2 to have been mentally disabled has once again brought attention to the issue of capital punishment in the United States.


Nearly 1,300 people have been executed in the U.S. over the past 36 years. But during that same time period, more than 130 have been exonerated 3, freed because of lack of evidence, or found innocent after being re-tried. 


One man still bears the psychological scars of life on Death Row: Shujaa Graham. He lives an ordinary life. His favorite Sunday activity is to take his grandsons to the creek 4 where he took his own children. 


Circle of violence 


But Graham has struggled for most of his 62 years. He spent the first eleven years of his life in Louisiana’s cotton fields. The next seven he spent in and out of juvenile 5 detention 6 facilities. 


Then, a robbery conviction at age 18 put him in adult prison - for life. He learned to read and write in prison, and denounced his earlier criminal activities. But it was a time of vast prison overcrowding and rioting. Things went terribly wrong.


"They opened up a new exercise yard in Soledad state prison," he said. "W.L. Nolan and two other blacks were killed - murdered… pow pow pow. And that’s what started the movement. People looked at the situation and said 'We dying.' They said, ‘Let’s organize ourselves and die together.'"


Graham was later blamed for the murder of a prison guard. He tried to prove his innocence 7 for the next eight years. But after the third trial on the charge, he was sentenced to die.


"Did I want to go to death row? No. But if I had to go to death row for my conviction, you damn right I’m going. All I wanted to do was to be political and expose what was going on in prison," he said.


Acquittal


Finally, after a fourth trial, he was acquitted 8 of the murder - and his robbery conviction was also overturned. Since then - for 35 years - his mission in life has been to raise awareness 9 about wrongful conviction.


"What has happened to me is over with and done," he said. "No one can bring those years back and no one can bring the psychological scars. No one can remove the physical scars. But Shujaa Graham can go on and make sure what happened to him never happens to anyone else."


Today, he does not look like a man who has faced execution. But his wife Phyllis says the experience still weighs on him.


"It’s been a long time now that we’ve been together and he still suffers and I think there’s still really ways that he holds on to what that formative years of your 20s, is your life, of how you look at the world. His were in prison and death row and being tortured," she said.


"Each and every day that I wake up, death row is the first thing on my mind. I can look at my children and look at my wife and say what if California would’ve had their way, I wouldn’t be here today,” said Shujaa Graham.


Bearing witness


Graham is an active member of “Witness to Innocence,” an organization that fights for total abolition 10 of the death penalty.


Last year, 43 prisoners were executed in the United States. Graham says he could have been one of them. And he says there’s not a day that passes that he’s not reminded of what could have been. 




n.被收容者;(房屋等的)居住人;住院人
  • 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。
a.被指控的,嫌疑的
  • It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
  • alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为
v.使免罪,免除( exonerate的过去式和过去分词 )
  • The police report exonerated Lewis from all charges of corruption. 警方的报告免除了对刘易斯贪污的所有指控。
  • An investigation exonerated the school from any blame. 一项调查证明该学校没有任何过失。 来自辞典例句
n.小溪,小河,小湾
  • He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
  • People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。
n.青少年,少年读物;adj.青少年的,幼稚的
  • For a grown man he acted in a very juvenile manner.身为成年人,他的行为举止显得十分幼稚。
  • Juvenile crime is increasing at a terrifying rate.青少年犯罪正在以惊人的速度增长。
n.滞留,停留;拘留,扣留;(教育)留下
  • He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
  • He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。
n.无罪;天真;无害
  • There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
  • The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。
宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 ); 使(自己)作出某种表现
  • The jury acquitted him of murder. 陪审团裁决他谋杀罪不成立。
  • Five months ago she was acquitted on a shoplifting charge. 五个月前她被宣判未犯入店行窃罪。
n.意识,觉悟,懂事,明智
  • There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
  • Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。
n.废除,取消
  • They declared for the abolition of slavery.他们声明赞成废除奴隶制度。
  • The abolition of the monarchy was part of their price.废除君主制是他们的其中一部分条件。
学英语单词
Afro pick
air afterheater
antihistories
auriiodide
basket type tower
beating off
beckes
biofabrication
blast sand with tumbling barrel
bottle-os
California Conservation Corps
Cavallo, C.
cerebral parasitic disease
certifiable disease
cheer pine
Ciasna
clik
coincidence resolution time
collector dotting
complete game
contact sheet
control centers
counterbracing
coupled gate
cry content with
Cymatine
dimethyl sulfone
drive sb to the wall
eated
edge crack
external service chain
feather away
felkin
finger fuck
fire resisting door
firetubes
fossile fuels
Fuentidueňa
gave a damn
gleyization
Gln-glutamine
glossiest
grid-controlled arc rectifier
high molecular weight high density polyethylene (hmwhdpe)
Holme
hortencia
igniter squib
Incomplete Fault Liability System
inconsonances
intermediate axle left wheel brake tube
irritable breast
knee-pan
knights bannerets
large amounts of
ligher
Like lambs to the slaughter
lipscomb
lubritoriums
maladie de coit
mesh impedance
minocycline
modern physics
monocillium arctiicola
multimedia journalism
non-stochastic
Nuers
o'ahu
optics of superconductor
oriented sheet
paleophytotaxonomy
pantsula
pastoral
petals
phonier
plate type contact freezer
poor eyesight
prctica
price discrimination
pseudotachylites
public job
pulse measuring oscilloscope
radar mine
radio mirage
reinforcement of multi-openings
robotic
saccharophilous
sacrifice sale
schizaphis (paraschizaphis) scirpi
showcase
Sri Lankans
St Helens Pt.
standing on one's head
swing over gap
Tap Mun Chau/Grass Island
taxation on separate income
transformation on variables
two-wheel undercarriage
utica gracilipes
visual monitor
windows are protected
wireless fog signal
zygoes