盖蒂图片社 一名抗议者在米卡尔·马赫迪于2025年被执行枪决前的场景 马德琳·哈尔珀 6小时前 美国国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯宣布军方将现场直播尼达尔·哈桑的枪决过程后，美国使用死刑的问题再次成为焦点。
Getty Images A protester before the firing squad execution of Mikal Mahdi in 2025 Madeline Halpert 6 hours ago America's use of the death penalty is under the spotlight once again after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the military would livestream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan.
这名前军方精神病学家于2009年在德克萨斯州福特胡德军事基地向13名无武装的美军士兵开枪致死。
The former military psychiatrist fatally shot 13 unarmed US soldiers at the Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009.
他的处决将是自1945年以来，美国陆军首次使用枪决方式执行死刑——这一方法已被多个州授权用于执行死刑。
His execution would be the first time the US Army had used a firing squad since 1945, a method that several states already authorise to put people to death.
此事发生在克里斯塔·派克因注射死刑失败而被送往医院、10天后康复后又被送回监狱之际——她的律师如此透露。派克曾因谋杀同学被判处死刑。
And it comes on the heels of the botched death by lethal injection of Christa Pike - a woman convicted of murdering her classmate. Pike was taken to hospital and then discharged to prison 10 days later, after making a recovery from the failed attempt, her lawyers said.
在人们对死刑执行失败的担忧日益加剧、联邦层面重新支持死刑的背景下，美国既引入了新的处决方式，也复兴了旧的方式，如枪决、电椅和毒气室。
Amid rising concerns over botched executions - and renewed federal support for the death penalty - the US has introduced both new and old forms of execution like firing squads, the electric chair and the gas chamber.
处决失败 自1982年得克萨斯州首次采用注射死刑以来，美国绝大多数处决均采用此方式。作为不持死刑立场的非营利智囊团“死刑信息中心”表示，过去50年间，美国共进行了1683次处决，其中有64次出现问题——包括51次注射死刑失败。
Botched executions The vast majority of executions in the US have been lethal injections since they were first introduced in Texas in 1982. The Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit think tank that does not take a stance on the death penalty, says that there have been 64 over the past 50 years - including 51 botched lethal injections - out of a total of 1,683 executions.
执行死刑的困难以及公众对某些方式被视为不人道待遇的愤怒，促使官员们考虑采用其他处决方式。但医学专家和研究处决的人士指出，美国目前使用的任何处决方式，一旦出现失误，都可能导致严重疼痛。
The difficulty of carrying out these executions, and the uproar over what some perceive as inhumane treatment, has led officials to consider alternative methods of putting people to death. But medical experts and those who study executions say every method the US uses to put people to death can result in severe pain, especially when botched.
“当人类参与执行死刑时，总是存在出错的可能性，”死刑信息中心的执行主任罗宾·马赫（Robin Maher）说道。
"We always have the possibility that there's going to be a mistake made when human beings are involved in executions," said Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
多个医学组织（包括全国性的医生和护士协会）也禁止其成员参与执行死刑。代表美国医生的美国医学会表示：“医学是一个致力于在仍有挽救生命希望时挽救生命的职业；任何形式的参与执行死刑的行为都与医生的职业誓言背道而驰。”
Several medical groups - including the national associations for doctors and nurses - also ban their members from participating in executions. The American Medical Association, which represents doctors in the US, states they are "a profession dedicated to preserving life when there is hope of doing so" and that participating in any way in executions is antithetical to their oath.
关于“注射死刑是一种‘和平的’处死方式”的说法其实是个误解。这种死刑执行方式最早于1982年在德克萨斯州被采用，如今已成为美国最普遍的死刑执行方式，许多州都将其作为默认的执行方法。
A 'myth' of peaceful lethal injections Lethal injection, which was first used in Texas in 1982, is now the most common way people are executed across the US, with many states making it their default method. Dr Joel Zivot, a professor of anaesthesiology and surgery based in Atlanta, Georgia, said states turned to lethal injection because it appeared from the outside to be a more peaceful means of execution.
来自佐治亚州亚特兰大的麻醉学和外科教授乔尔·齐沃特（Joel Zivot）博士指出，各州之所以选择注射死刑，是因为从表面上看这种方式似乎更为“人道”。“那其实是个误解，”他说。
"That was a myth," he said. Dr Zivot said that sometimes the injection of the drugs can cause pulmonary edema, when a person's lungs fill with fluid, which can give people the painful sensation of drowning.
齐沃特博士指出，有时在注射死刑药物的过程中可能会引发肺水肿（即肺部积液），导致患者感到类似溺水的剧烈疼痛。“这是一种极其可怕的死亡方式，”他说。
"It's a terrifying way to die - to drown," he said. Other times, people have medical conditions, like Pike - who suffered from thrombocytosis and other medical problems her lawyers warned about - that can complicate the execution and make it more painful.
此外，有些死刑犯本身就患有某些疾病（例如皮克就患有血小板增多症等健康问题，她的律师也曾对此提出过警告），这些疾病会使得执行过程变得更加复杂且痛苦。皮克在执行死刑时，她的律师称：“在整个过程中，都能听到她的哭泣声、呜咽声以及剧烈的呼吸声。”
During Pike's failed execution, "she could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly throughout the procedure", her lawyers said. There are a host of reasons why so many lethal injections have been botched, but some of the same factors persist, said Maher.
马赫表示，导致注射死刑失败的原因有很多，但一些根本性问题始终存在：“很多时候，执行失败是由于工作人员培训不足、药物变质或过期、储存不当，或者是因为各州在尝试从未使用过的药物组合所致。”福特胡德枪击案凶手能否被直播处决？
"Oftentimes, the executions go wrong because training of staff is inadequate, because drugs are degraded or expired or improperly stored, or because states are experimenting with different combinations of drugs that have never been used before," she said. Can the Fort Hood shooter’s execution be livestreamed?
大多数情况下，公众很难了解执行致命注射的人员信息，因为各州通常不会公开这些人员的培训背景。
Most of the time, little information is available to the public about the people administering the lethal injection, as the states do not usually share what training they have had.
马赫尔表示：“我们发现，在许多案例中，尤其是在执行失败之后，问题往往出在执行人员经验不足、训练不到位。”
"We have discovered that in many instances, and unfortunately subsequent to a botched execution, that the cause was the inadequate experience and training of the execution staff," Maher said.
用于致命注射的药物也难以获取，因为许多制药公司不愿将药品出售给监狱用于此类目的，因为这些药物原本是为拯救生命而开发的。
Drugs for lethal injections are also hard to obtain because many pharmaceutical companies do not want to sell the medications to prisons for that use, since they were developed for life-saving purposes.
氮气等新方法的出现 鉴于上述诸多挑战，一些州开始采用一种新且备受争议的执行方式：氮气。
New methods like nitrogen gas In light of many of these challenges, some states have turned to executing people with a new and controversial method: nitrogen gas.
阿拉巴马州和路易斯安那州是首批使用氮气执行死刑的州，另有三个州——阿肯色州、密西西比州和俄克拉荷马州——也允许使用这种方法。
Alabama and Louisiana are the first states to have carried out executions with nitrogen gas, though three other states - Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma - also allow for it.
两年前，阿拉巴马州曾使用氮气处决了肯尼斯·尤金·史密斯，此前他在2022年的一次致命注射执行中未能成功被处死。
Two years ago, Alabama used nitrogen gas to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith, after a botched attempt to put him to death via lethal injection in 2022.
当时一名目击者告诉BBC，在执行过程中，史密斯在担架上剧烈挣扎，整个过程持续了25分钟。这种方法要求强迫囚犯吸入纯氮气，直至窒息。
During the execution, which took 25 minutes, Smith thrashed violently on the gurney as he was given the gas, a witness told the BBC at the time. The method involves forcing a prisoner to breathe pure nitrogen gas until they suffocate.
齐沃特医生表示，吸入这种气体的人有时会出现癫痫发作。自2024年1月引入该方法以来，阿拉巴马州已用氮气处决了七人。
Dr Zivot said people who breathe in the gas sometimes get seizures. Alabama has executed seven people using nitrogen gas since introducing the method in January 2024.
齐沃特医生说：“每一次执行都是一场可怕的挣扎、动作和抽搐。”
"Each time it was a horror show of struggling, of moving, of seizing," Dr Zivot said.
在加利福尼亚州的圣昆廷监狱，官员们直到1993年仍使用毒气室处决部分囚犯。 回归电椅 虽然一些州在探索新方法，但另一些州则重新批准了美国官员早期使用的处决方式。
At San Quentin prison in California, officials used a gas chamber to execute some people until 1993 A return to the electric chair While some states have explored new methods, others have reauthorised some of the earliest ways US officials used to put people to death. As of this year, nine states have approved execution by electric chair, with South Carolina using it as their default method.
截至今年，已有九个州批准使用电椅处决，南卡罗来纳州将其作为默认处决方式。
Electrocution "has a horrible history of botched executions", Maher said, and errors with these executions is one of the reasons why states introduced lethal injections in the first place.
马赫尔表示，电椅处决“有着令人恐惧的处决失误历史”，而这些处决失误是各州最初引入注射死刑的原因之一。
In 1997, Pedro Medina's head caught fire as he was put to death in an electric chair in Florida.
1997年，佩德罗·梅迪纳在佛罗里达州的电椅上被处决时，头部起火。
"A solid flame covered his whole head, from one side to the other.
“火焰从一侧蔓延至另一侧，覆盖了他整个头部。我感觉就像有人被活活烧死，”他的律师迈克·米内瓦如此表示，据《洛杉矶时报》报道。
I had the impression of somebody being burned alive," his attorney Mike Minerva said, according to the Los Angeles Times.
曾被用于军事惩戒和战争时期的枪决方式也暴露出人为失误的风险。
A method once used as punishment in the military and in times of war, firing squad executions have also proven susceptible to human error.
去年，米卡尔·马赫迪在承认于2004年杀害一名非执勤警察后，被三人组成的枪决小组处决。但他的律师称，他的死亡被延长，因为子弹未击中他的心脏，而是击中了他的肝脏和其他器官。
Mikahl Mahdi was executed by a three-person firing squad last year after admitting to killing an off-duty police officer in 2004. But his lawyers say his death was prolonged because the bullets missed his heart and instead hit his liver and other organs.
今年7月，爱达荷州因在注射死刑方面遇到问题，成为首个将枪决作为主要处决方式的州。密西西比州、俄克拉荷马州、犹他州和南卡罗来纳州也批准使用这种处决方式。
In July, Idaho became the first state to use a firing squad as its primary method of execution after it ran into issues with lethal injections. Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and South Carolina also authorise this execution method.
前美国陆军军士阿隆佐·伦斯福德在福特胡德袭击中被哈桑击中七次却幸存下来，他告诉BBC，枪决是一种“恰当”的结束生命方式，因为注射死刑和毒气室“反而在帮他忙”。
Alonzo Lunsford, a former US Army sergeant who survived being shot seven times by Hasan in the Fort Hood attack, told the BBC the firing squad was a "befitting" method to end his life because lethal injection and a gas chamber would be "doing him a favour".
绞刑曾是美国直至1890年代的主要处决方式，日本和新加坡等多个亚洲国家仍在使用此方式。但马赫尔表示，在美国，由于其“可怕”的历史，没有任何州批准使用绞刑。
Hanging was the main method of execution in the US until the 1890s, and several Asian countries including Japan and Singapore still use this method. But in the US, no states authorise hanging because of its "terrible" history, Maher said.
“绞刑在美国与种族暴力和私刑有着可怕的关联，”她说。“因此没有哪个州在使用绞刑或授权使用这种方法。”特朗普因素 特朗普——死刑的支持者——在他2025年重返白宫后恢复了联邦死刑，此前拜登政府在2021年对联邦执行死刑实施了暂停。
"Hanging has such a terrible association with racial violence and lynching in the states," she said. "So that is why there's no state that's using hanging or has authorised that method to be used." The Trump factor Trump - a proponent of the death penalty - brought back the federal death penalty when he returned to office in 2025, after Joe Biden's administration put a moratorium on federal executions in 2021.
“死刑是威慑和惩罚那些将实施最恶劣罪行和对美国公民实施致命暴力行为的人的重要工具，”他的办公室在一项行政命令中写道。
"Capital punishment is an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens," his office wrote in an executive order.
梅尔说，自特朗普开始表达对死刑的热情以来，各州立法机构在批准和重新授权其他执行方式方面出现了“相当多的活动”。
Maher said there has been "quite a bit of activity" in state legislatures to approve and reauthorise other methods of execution since Trump began expressing enthusiasm for the death penalty.
特朗普呼吁将死刑的适用范围扩大到惩罚大规模毒品贩子、人口贩子和杀害警察的人。过去50年里，所有被判死刑的囚犯均因谋杀罪被定罪，尽管在此之前死刑也曾用于强奸罪的定罪。
Trump has called for the death penalty to be expanded to punish large-scale drug dealers, human traffickers and those who kill police officers. Over the past 50 years, all prisoners who received death sentences were convicted of murder, though capital punishment was also used for rape convictions before that.
当记者问派克的注射死刑失败是否应促使死刑政策发生变化时，特朗普没有直接回答问题，而是补充说，执行方法“不应该很困难”。美国 田纳西州
Asked by reporters whether Pike's failed lethal injection should spur changes to the death penalty, Trump did not directly answer the question, adding that the execution method "shouldn't be very difficult". United States Tennessee