美国上一次高调的公开处决发生在1936年，当时在肯塔基州西部城市欧文斯博罗，一名名叫雷尼·贝塞亚的黑人男子因被控强奸白人女子而被绞死。
The last high-profile public execution in the U.S. was the 1936 hanging of Rainey Bethea — a Black man convicted of raping a white woman.
根据NPR最近的一篇报道，“大约2万人聚集在欧文斯博罗，工人们在河畔附近搭建了绞刑架。”前一天，正如“历史学家所描述的那样，现场气氛喜庆”，参与者们“举行‘领带派对’庆祝”并“饮用软饮料”。“他们卖三明治，也卖可口可乐，你会以为那是一次大型野餐或类似的活动，”一位参与者在2013年接受县图书馆口述历史采访时如此说道。
According to a recent NPR report, “Roughly 20,000 people gathered in the western Kentucky city of Owensboro, where workers built gallows near the riverfront.”The night before, in what “historians describe as a festive atmosphere,” attendees “celebrated with ‘necktie’ parties” and “sipped soft drinks.”“They sold sandwiches and they sold Coca-Cola, and you’d have thought it was a big picnic or something,” said an attendee during a 2013 oral history interview with the county library.
尽管欧文斯博罗气氛欢快，但全国范围内的愤怒显而易见。自1938年以来，美国再未有过公开处决。八十八年后，本届政府曾一度濒临终结这一纪录。
Despite the celebratory mood in Owensboro, the national outrage was clear. There have been no public executions in the U.S. since 1938. Eighty-eight years later, this administration came within weeks of ending that streak.
国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯宣布，尼达尔·哈桑的枪决将于12月3日进行，并将向公众直播。特朗普总统表示他“绝对”赞同。哈桑曾是陆军精神科医生，2009年在德克萨斯州福德堡枪杀13人、致32人受伤。
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan on Dec. 3 would be livestreamed for the public, and President Trump said he “absolutely” approved. Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, murdered 13 people and wounded 32 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.
周四，在经历两党反对后，特朗普改变了主意。处决不会被直播，我很庆幸。但我们应该诚实地面对发生的事情：他们并没有改变主意；他们只是输掉了这场争论。
On Thursday, after bipartisan backlash, Trump reversed course. The execution will not be streamed, and I’m glad. But we should be honest about what happened: They didn’t change their minds; they just lost the argument.
即使在撤回计划时，特朗普仍坚持认为播放一个人的死亡“可能会起到强烈的威慑作用。”值得铭记的是，这本来就是计划。
Even in retreat, Trump insisted that broadcasting a man’s death “might have been a strong deterrent.”It is worth remembering that this was the plan.
我曾在南卡罗来纳州担任检察官超过十年。受州法律誓言的约束，我曾说服陪审团判处一名男子死于电椅。在另一起案件中，我代表南卡罗来纳州站在美国最高法院面前，为另一名被定罪男子的处决进行辩论。多年后，作为州参议员，我提出并帮助通过了一项法律，授权使用枪决作为南卡罗来纳州实施死刑的一种方式。我这样做是因为我认为枪决比电椅更人道。
I served as a South Carolina prosecutor for more than a decade. Bound by my oath to uphold the laws of this state, I persuaded a jury to sentence a man to die in the electric chair. In another case, I stood before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the state of South Carolina and argued for the execution of another convicted man. Years later, as a state senator, I introduced and helped pass a law authorizing the firing squad as a means of imposing the death penalty in South Carolina. I did it because I believed it was more humane than electrocution.
我在《为我掘墓》一书中讲述了唐纳德“小个子”加斯金斯案的故事。写这本书迫使我正视国家夺走生命意味着什么，以及这种责任对执行者提出了什么要求。虽然我支持死刑，但我仅在最狭窄的情况下支持它。
I told the story of the Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins case in my book, “Dig Me a Grave.”Writing it forced me to confront what it means for the state to take a life, and what that responsibility demands of the people who carry it out. And although I support the death penalty, I support it only in the narrowest of circumstances.
我的职业生涯既在法庭一边当检察官，也在另一边当辩护律师。无论采用何种方式，处决从来都不是有效的犯罪威慑手段。把它放在屏幕上也不会改变这一点。
I have spent my career on both sides of the courtroom, as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney. Execution by any method is not and never has been an effective deterrent to crime. Putting it on a screen will not change that.
处决是对被判刑者进一步犯罪行为的威慑。我送上电椅的加斯金斯此前因13起谋杀案被定罪，随后就在死囚牢房里因为他能这么做而暗杀了一人。是时候让他离开了；是时候终结他作案的倾向了。
Execution is a deterrent to the condemned person’s further criminal conduct. Gaskins, the man I sent to the electric chair, had been convicted of 13 prior murders and then assassinated a man on death row just because he could. It was time for him to go; time to end his propensity for murder.
而且别误会：也是哈桑该走的时候了。但公开展示他的死不会像惩罚他那样惩罚我们。虽然我受邀参加了我定罪的那名男子的处决，但我并未出席。如果我参加了，我相信我会堕落到他的水平。
And don’t get me wrong: It is also Hasan’s time to go. But a public display of his death wouldn’t have punished him as much as it would have punished us. While invited, I did not attend the execution of the man I convicted. Had I attended, I believe that I would have fallen to his level.
我理解参加处决的受害者。他们认为这能让他们得到释然，虽然我从未亲眼目睹过这种效果。夺走人类生命中既没有欢乐，也没有成就感。那些想把它变成表演的人 — — 我说这句话是认真的 — — 更像是被判刑者而非受害者。可能曾有聚会和集会来观看一名坐轮椅的人被枪杀致死。我们当时会如何向他们解释，为什么我们选择把死亡变成一种公共娱乐形式？
I understand victims who attend executions. They believe it will give them closure, although I have never personally witnessed that effect. There is no joy or sense of accomplishment in the taking of a human life. Those who wanted to make a spectacle of it are — and I say this seriously — more like the condemned than the victim. There might have been parties and gatherings to watch a man in a wheelchair get shot to death. How would we have explained to them why we chose to make death a form of public entertainment?
特朗普和赫格塞思显然乐于释放地狱火雨下般倾泻在匿名人物身上的画面，这些人被他们草率地宣称为敌人。但这些视频太过临床化、太过无菌，而且收视率也不够好。于是，这位前真人秀节目主持人想要自己的“饥饿游戏”，让全国能够实时观看死亡的发生。
It’s clear that Trump and Hegseth revel in releasing footage of hellfire raining down on anonymous people they have summarily declared the enemy. But those videos are too clinical and too antiseptic, and the ratings aren’t good enough. So, the former reality show host wanted his own “Hunger Games,” where the country could watch death unfold in real time.
观众本可以反复慢速回放，看到子弹击中时血液飞溅。画面越血腥，收视率就越高。
Viewers could have replayed it in slow motion and watched the blood erupt as the bullets hit. The more gruesome the footage, the higher the ratings.
这就是白宫当时准备向美国传授的课程：生命一文不值，品格无关紧要。他们这一次被阻止，并不意味着他们有所领悟。
That is the lesson this White House was prepared to teach America: A life is worth nothing, and character doesn’t matter. That they were stopped this time doesn’t mean they’ve learned anything.
迪克·哈普特利安，南卡罗来纳州民主党前主席，是一名辩护律师，哈普特利安律师事务所的创始人。他曾是南卡罗来纳州参议员，也是曾任检察官并主导对连环杀手唐纳德“小个子”加斯金斯案件的律师。他是《为我挖一座坟》的作者。
Dick Harpootlian, former chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, is a defense attorney and founder of Harpootlian Attorneys At Law. He is a former South Carolina state senator and a former prosecutor who led the case against serial killer Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins. He is the author of “Dig Me a Grave.”