Getty/Bettmann 1936年，约两万名民众聚集在肯塔基州，围观雷尼·贝西亚被公开绞刑的场面。贝西亚因强奸并杀害一名年迈女子而被判有罪。美国资深记者希拉·弗林 5分钟前报道成千上万的男女老少从四面八方赶来，在肯塔基州的河岸边排起长队，只为目睹一名被判定犯下强奸及杀人罪的黑人男子被公开处决。
Getty/Bettmann An estimated crowd of 20,000 gathered in Kentucky in 1936 for the public hanging of Rainey Bethea, who'd been convicted of the rape and killing of an elderly woman Sheila Flynn Senior US Reporter 5 minutes ago They came in their thousands from near and far - men, women and children lined up on a Kentucky riverfront for the public hanging of a black man convicted of raping and killing an elderly white widow.
那是1936年8月14日，星期五。当时正值一场历史性的热浪之中，肯塔基州欧文斯伯勒的天气酷热难耐。有些人为了抢占好位置，干脆在绞刑架旁过夜；还有些人前一天晚上举办所谓的“绞刑派对”，结果第二天带着宿醉之态前来围观。当时有不少青少年向观众兜售爆米花和汽水。到了凌晨5点行刑时间，围观人群已增至约两万人。
It was 14 August 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky, a sweltering Friday in the middle of a legendary heat wave. Some slept overnight near the gallows to preserve their spots. Others held "necktie" parties the previous evening, arriving hungover as teenagers sold popcorn and soda to the spectators. By the execution time of 5am, the crowd had swelled to an estimated 20,000.
此时，二十多岁的孤儿雷尼·贝西亚被押至绞刑架前。据称他曾供认自己抢劫、强奸并杀害了70岁的莉希亚·爱德华兹，因此被判处死刑。
That's when Rainey Bethea, an orphan in his 20s, stepped up to the gallows - sentenced to death after allegedly confessing to robbing, raping and killing Lischia Edwards, 70.
行刑前一天下午，他享用了一顿“最后的晚餐”：炸鸡、猪排、土豆泥、腌黄瓜、玉米面包、柠檬派以及冰淇淋。
The previous afternoon, he'd eaten a last meal of fried chicken, pork chops, mashed potatoes, pickled cucumbers, cornbread, lemon pie and ice cream.
许多围观者——包括来自芝加哥和纽约等地的记者——都是冲着传说中的“女行刑人”而来。原来，当地警长四个月前去世，其遗孀便意外接任了这一职务。不过她并未亲自拉动绞索装置，最终还是由雇佣的职业刽子手将贝西亚送上了黄泉路。
Many of those gathered - including press from as far away as Chicago and New York - came to see the rumoured "Lady Executioner;" the local sheriff had died four months earlier, and his widow became the unlikely female replacement. She declined to pull the trip lever herself, however, and it was hired hangmen who instead sent Bethea to his death.
这一幕也标志着美国最后一次备受瞩目的公开绞刑。围绕贝西亚之死所出现的种种闹剧令许多肯塔基州民众感到难堪，18个月后该州州长便下令禁止公开处决。
That moment marked the last high-profile public hanging in America. The circus surrounding Bethea's death embarrassed many in Kentucky, and the governor outlawed public executions 18 months later.
那时，随着社会观念逐渐趋向人道与隐私，多数州也已废除了死刑。1937年密苏里州虽又举行过一次绞刑，但关注度极低，那也成了美国历史上最后一次公开处决——直到如今。
By then, most states had abolished capital punishment in view of the masses as societal attitudes sought more humane and private methods. Another hanging was attended by a few hundred in Missouri in 1937, but that was lesser known and marked America's final public execution - until now.
FPG/Staff/Getty 男女老少纷纷前来围观绞刑，这成为美国最后一次备受瞩目的公开处决。贝西亚被处决90多年后，美国国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯宣布，军方将对2009年在得克萨斯州胡德堡军事基地杀害13名手无寸铁的战友的尼达尔·哈桑执行公开处决。随后五角大楼又宣布，这次枪决过程将进行直播。
FPG/Staff/Getty Men, women and children attended the hanging, which marked the last high-profile public execution in the US A little more than 90 years after Bethea's killing, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the military would publicly execute Nidal Hasan who killed 13 unarmed fellow soldiers in 2009 at the Fort Hood military base in Texas. The Pentagon followed up by saying the execution by firing squad would be live-streamed.
“民众必须明白，此类行为会带来极其严重的后果，”赫格塞斯说道。
"People need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things," Hegseth said.
科罗拉多大学荣誉教授、长期研究死刑问题的迈克尔·拉德莱特对此感到震惊。“我从未想过还会出现另一次公开处决，”他告诉BBC。
University of Colorado professor emeritus Michael Radelet, a long-time scholar of capital punishment, was shocked. "I never imagined [another] public execution," he told BBC.
他指出，总体而言，公众对死刑的支持率一直在稳步下降：1994年时这一比例还高达80%，如今则降至52%。
He noted how public support for the death penalty in general has been steadily declining; it was 80% in 1994, for example, but now stands at 52%.
“这一比例急剧下滑，尤其是在人们有了‘终身监禁不得假释’这一替代选项之后，”他说道。
"It's gone down precipitously, especially when you give the alternative of life without parole," he said.
目前尚无法知晓美国民众对死刑直播这一做法持何种态度，但几乎可以肯定的是，会有数以百万计的民众收看直播。
It's too soon to know what the American public thinks of the idea of livestreaming an execution. But it's nearly certain that millions or more will tune in.
拉德莱特表示，随着赫格塞斯的宣布，“死刑的正当性已然变成了一种娱乐形式……大家带上爆米花，叫上朋友一起观看吧。”死刑在美国的使用情况究竟如何呢？
With Hegseth's announcement, Radelet said, "the justification for the death penalty becomes entertainment … bring your popcorn, invite your friends". How widely used is the death penalty in the US?
索妮娅·莉亚去年刚出版了一本关于贝西亚处决事件的书籍，当她得知枪决过程将直播的消息时，“为我们的后代感到极度恐惧”。
Sonya Lea, who just last year published a book about Bethea's execution, "felt absolute horror for our descendants" when she heard of the announced firing squad livestream.
“1936年时人们把这种处决称作‘施虐狂欢’，”她说，“如今我们有了能将画面传播给更多人的技术，远超过当年在肯塔基州欧文斯伯勒围观处决的2万名民众……这只会让事情显得更加可怕。” 莉亚的祖父母当年就是1936年围观人群中的一对新婚少年。直到2002年祖母去世，她读到祖母留下的记述，才得知当时他们离行刑地点极近，甚至能听到贝西亚脖子折断的声音。
"What they called it in 1936 was a carnival of sadism," she said. "That we now have the technology that can make it go wider than the 20,000 people who showed up … to witness in Owensboro, Kentucky, it just makes it even more horrific." Lea's grandparents were teenage newlyweds among that 1936 crowd. She only found out after her grandmother's 2002 death, when she read an account her late grandma had given detailing how they were close enough to hear Bethea's neck snap.
作者在随后多年的研究中发现，许多肯塔基州民众至今仍被那次处决事件所困扰。
The author's subsequent years of research taught her that many Kentuckians were "haunted" by that execution.
“我真心以为，我们早已将这种只有世界上少数几个国家才会实施的残忍行径抛诸脑后了——比如伊朗、朝鲜、阿富汗，”她说，“如今，身为美利坚合众国，我们是否也打算成为这类政府的代表呢？这实在令人毛骨悚然。”俄亥俄州立大学的社会心理学教授库尔特·格雷指出，美国政治领域的两极分化与极端言论或许在某种程度上为此类决定埋下了伏笔。
"I really thought, with all my heart, that we had put this in the rearview mirror, this level of grotesquery that only a few countries in the world engage in - Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan," she said. "Are we now, as the United States of America, considering ourselves to be part of that kind of government? It's just horrific." But the polarisation and rhetoric in American politics may have, in some way, perhaps set the stage for such an announcement, said Kurt Gray, a social psychology professor at Ohio State University.
“部分美国人或许渴望看到血腥场面，但我认为绝大多数美国人并不如此；甚至可以说，很多人已经对此麻木不仁了，”他说，“他们并非在为公开处决欢呼，只是觉得‘哦，原来我们现在处于这种境地了’。”胡德堡枪击案凶手的处决过程能否进行直播呢？
"Some Americans might thirst for blood, but I think a lot of Americans don't, and, if anything, I think a lot of other Americans are just kind of maybe desensitised," he said. "So it's not like they're cheering a public execution; they're just like, 'Oh, yeah, I guess that's where we're at now.'" Can the Fort Hood shooter’s execution be livestreamed?
其他研究则显示，赫格塞斯及本届政府或许误读了美国民众的意愿。
Other research indicates that Hegseth and the administration may be reading the country wrong.
加州大学伯克利分校暴力预防研究项目主任加伦·温特穆特指出，调查数据显示美国民众对暴力的接受度正在下降。
Garen Wintemute, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Berkeley, said survey data points to a declining appetite for violence in the US.
“今天上午，美国天主教主教团主席称此次‘直播处决’的决定极其野蛮，”他说，“我认为他的观点代表了众多民众的心声。”
"This morning, the chair of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops labeled this [livestream execution announcement] as barbaric," he said. "And I think he speaks for a lot of people."
“我认为关键在于：公开处决根本不符合我们的本性，也不是我们作为一个国家所追求的目标，”他补充道。身为天主教徒的美国副总统JD·万斯表示自己不会观看处决过程；唐纳德·特朗普总统则回避了自己是否会观看的问题，不过确认自己已批准对哈桑的处决进行直播。
"I think it's this: A public execution is not who we are," he added. "It's not who we aspire to be as a country." Vice-President JD Vance, a Catholic, has said he would not be watching the execution President Donald Trump dodged the question of whether he'd tune in himself - but confirmed he approved the decision to livestream Hasan's death.
“只要他死掉，我根本不在乎他是怎么死的，”特朗普说道，“我认为死刑对他而言是最合适的结局。”美利坚合众国 肯塔基州
"I really don't care how he goes as long as he goes," Trump said. "And I think that the death penalty is a very worthy way of going for him." United States Kentucky