纽约时报 孩子闷死车内 是意外还是犯罪?(3)（在线收听）

“Just because you do something wrong doesn’t make it a crime,”

“仅仅因为做错事是不能构成犯罪的，”

Mr. McNamara said, explaining why he brought no charges.

麦克纳马拉解释了自己为什么没有提出指控。

“After everything was done, and everyone was interviewed, we came to the conclusion that he just forgot,

“做完所有调查，采访完所有人之后，我们认为，他真的就是忘了而已，

and I don’t think the law punishes forgetting.”

而且我不认为法律会惩罚遗忘。”

The Herkimer County district attorney, Jeffrey S. Carpenter, came to a similar conclusion about Alan Lyon,

何基莫县地方检察官杰弗里·S.卡彭特在处理艾伦里昂一案时，他曾在把两个稍大的孩子送到学校后，

who left 15-month old Sophia alone in a sweltering car after dropping off her siblings.

将15个月大的索菲亚独自留在了闷热的车里，也得出了类似的结论。

“I looked at everything I could regarding the father, his prior history,

“我什么都查过了，有无前科，

his conduct, whether there was obsessive alcohol use, anything,” Mr. Carpenter said.

平时的表现，有无酗酒问题等等，”卡彭特说。

“And everything in this case came back to he simply forgot she was in the car.”

“所有的线索都指向了同一个结论：他就是忘了她还在车里了而已。”

In the New York cases that resulted in charges,

在纽约那些以指控收尾的案件中，

there were early hints that something else besides mere forgetting was at play.

有初步迹象表明，除了单纯的遗忘，还有别的因素在起作用。

In April 2004, for instance, a Long Island mother, Yesenia Brito, was charged with criminally negligent homicide

2004年4月，长岛的一位母亲叶塞尼亚·布里托被控过失杀人罪，

after she left her infant daughter, Jada, in a parking lot while she worked a shift at a pediatrician’s office in West Hempstead.

原因是她将尚在襁褓中的女儿加达留在停车场，自己便去西亨普斯特德的儿科医生办公室轮班了。

The police said she initially lied about the child’s whereabouts.

警方表示，她最初谎报了孩子的下落。

Later, at sentencing, she apologized for leaving the child in the car, saying she did not think the baby would be harmed.

后来，在宣判时，她为把孩子留在车里道了歉，声称她以为孩子不会受到伤害。

She was sentenced to a year in jail.

最终，她被判处一年监禁。

Murder cases, where prosecutors argue that a parent left a child in a hot car with the intent to kill, are almost unheard-of.

到目前为止，笔者还几乎未曾听说检察官认为父母把孩子留在温度较高的车内是意图杀害孩子的谋杀案件。

But a jury determined that this happened in at least one high-profile case.

但某陪审团认定，至少有一起备受瞩目的案件确实属于这类情况。

In June 2014, Justin Ross Harris, a father in Marietta, Ga.,

2014年6月，佐治亚州玛丽埃塔的一名父亲贾斯汀·罗斯·哈里斯

stopped at a Chick-fill-A for breakfast with his 22-month-old son, Cooper.

和22个月大的儿子库珀在一家Chick-fill-A吃过早餐，

He then drove to work and left Cooper strapped in a rear-facing car seat in a sweltering parking lot for seven hours.

便驱车去上班，把还在后座上的库珀留在闷热的停车场里长达7个小时。

Cooper died.

库珀不幸离开了人世。

Mr. Harris claimed his son’s death was an accident.

哈里斯声称儿子的死是一场意外。

But prosecutors moved ahead with murder charges.

但检察官还是对他提出了谋杀指控。

They found that Mr. Harris had exchanged lewd text messages and pictures with at least six women,

他们发现，就在儿子去世那天，哈里斯还同至少六名女性，其中还有一名未成年人

including a minor, on the day of his son’s death.

交换过淫秽短信及照片。

A jury agreed with prosecutors that Mr. Harris wanted his son out of his life.

陪审团同意检察官所持观点，认为哈里斯希望儿子离开自己的生活。

Mr. Harris was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

哈里斯被判有罪，判处终身监禁。

He is now attempting to appeal.

目前，他正准备上诉。

Charles P. Boring, the assistant district attorney in Cobb County who handled the case, said

负责此案的科布县助理地区检察官查尔斯·P.伯宁表示，

prosecutors need to ignore the emotions surrounding hot-car cases and follow the evidence.

检察官们需要撇开围绕孩子死于高温车内案件的情绪，追寻证据。

“It’s a difficult situation and people get caught up in the emotion of it one way or the other,

“这种情况确实很为难，不管怎样，人们都会被情绪冲昏头脑，

either thinking nobody could ever do this, or people can always do this,” Mr. Boring said.

要么认为根本不会有人做出这种事，要么认为大家总能做出这种事，”伯宁说。

“Like most things, it’s never black and white.”

“但和大多数事情一样，这一问题从来就不是那么绝对。”