I was sitting at the

２週間前のことです

kitchen table with my wife Katya,

私はキッチンのテーブルで

and we were talking about what I was gonna talk about today.

妻のカティアと話をしていました

We have an 11-year-old son; his name is Lincoln. He was sitting at the same table

今日 何を話そうかと相談していました

doing his math homework.

11歳の息子リンカーンは同じテーブルで

And during a pause in my conversation

算数の宿題をしていました

with Katya, I looked over at Lincoln

会話のあいまに

and I was suddenly thunderstruck

ふとリンカーンに目をやって突然

by a recollection of a client of mine.

激しい衝撃を覚えました

My client was a guy named Will.

あるクライアントのことを思い出したのです

He was from North Texas.

ウィルと言う名前の男で

He never knew his father very well, because his father left

ノーステキサスの出身でした

his mom while she was pregnant with him.

彼は父親のことを知るよしもありませんでした

And so, he was destined to be raised by a single mom,

父親は 妊娠中の母親を残して蒸発したのです

which might have been all right

そこで シングルマザーの家庭で育てられました

except that this particular single mom

そういう人は他にもいますが

was a paranoid schizophrenic,

この母親は

and when Will was five years old she try to kill him with butcher's knife.

妄想型の統合失調症でした

She was

５歳の時 ウィルは包丁で殺されそうになりました

taken away by authorities and placed in a psychiatric hospital.

母親は

and so for the next several years Will lived with his older brother.

精神病院に入れられました

until he committed suicide by shooting himself through the heart.

その後の数年間ウィルは兄と暮らしていましたが

And after that

兄は拳銃で胸を撃って自殺しました

Will bounced around from one family member to another.

その後 ウィルは

until, by the time he was nine years old, he was essentially living on himself.

親戚の家を転々としました

That morning that I was sitting with Catia and Lincoln, i looked at my son.

そして９歳になる頃にはひとりで生きていました

and I realized that when my client, Will,

私は 家族で過ごしていたその朝

was his age,

息子の姿から気づいたのです

he'd been living by himself for two years.

この年頃には

Will eventually joined a gang

ウィルはもう２年もひとりで暮らしていたのです

and committed

結局 ウィルはギャングのメンバーとなり

a number of very serious crimes,

そして 何件もの

including, most seriously of all,

重大犯罪に手を染めました

a horrible, tragic murder.

最も重大な犯罪は

And Will was ultimately executed

恐ろしい 悲劇的な殺人でした

as punishment for that crime.

やがてウィルは罪に問われて

But I don't want to

死刑を執行されました

talk today

でも私が今日 お話ししたいのは

about the morality of capital punishment. I certainly think that my client

死刑の道義性ではありません

shouldn't have been executed, but what I would like to do today instead

もちろんクライアントの死刑について

is talk about the death penalty

納得はしていません しかし今日は死刑について

in a way I've never done before,

これまでとは違う角度から

in a way

お話ししてみたいと思います

that is entirely noncontroversial.

皆さんに

I think that's possible,

納得して頂けるようなお話をしたいと思います

because there is a corner

それが可能だと考える理由は

of the death penalty debate --

死刑に関する議論は

maybe the most important corner --

ある点でひとつに交わり

where everybody agrees,

この交差点は

where the most ardent death penalty supporters

誰もが同意できる重要な点だからです

and the most vociferous abolitionists

死刑を強く支持する人も

are on exactly the same page.

死刑廃止を強く主張する人も

That's the corner I want to explore.

同意するポイントです

Before I do that, though, I want to spend a couple of minutes telling you how a death

そのことを考えてみたいと思います

penalty case unfolds,

しかし その前に死刑に至る道筋を

and then I want to tell you two lessons that I have learned over the last 20 years

簡単にお話しします

as a death penalty lawyer,

それから この20年間に学んだふたつの教訓をお話しします

from watching well more than a hundred cases unfold in this way.

弁護士として死刑にかかわる

You can think of a death penalty case as a story

100件以上の案件を担当して学んだことです

that has four chapters.

死刑に至る物語は４つの章からなる

The first chapter of every case is exactly the same,

物語と捉えて下さい

and it is tragic.

第１章はどれも同じです

It begins with the murder

悲劇です

of an innocent human being,

始めは殺人—

and it's followed by a trial

罪もない人が殺されて

where the murderer is convicted and sent to death row,

そして裁判が行われます

and that death sentence is ultimately

有罪となり死刑が宣告されます

upheld by the state appellate court.

その死刑宣告は最終的には

The second chapter consists of a complicated legal proceeding known as..

州控訴裁判所も認めます

a state habeas corpus appeal.

第２章は複雑な法律上の手続きです

The third chapter is an even more complicated legal proceeding known as a

州の人身保護令状請求というものです

federal habeas corpus proceeding.

第３章はもっと複雑は法律上の手続きで

And the fourth chapter

連邦レベルの人身保護手続きです

is one where a variety of things can happen. The lawyers might file a clemency petition,

そして第４章では様々なことが起きます

they might initiate even more complex litigation.

弁護士が減刑嘆願書を提出する可能性もあります

or they might not do anything at all.

もっと複雑な法廷闘争の可能性もあります

But that fourth chapter always ends

もしくは 何もしないかもしれません

with an execution.

いずれにせよ

When I started representing death row inmates more than twenty years ago

第４章の最後は死刑執行で終わります

people on death row did not have a right to a lawyer and even the second

私が死刑囚を担当するようになったのは20年以上前です

or the fourth chapter of this story.

当時 この物語の２章と４章において

They were on their own.

弁護を受ける権利は与えられず

In fact, it wasn't until the late 1980s that they acquired a

彼らを助ける人はいませんでした

right to a lawyer during the third chapter

第３章で弁護を受ける権利すら

of the story.

80年代後半にようやく

So what all of these death row inmates had to do

与えられたものでした

was rely on volunteer lawyers

ですから死刑囚の

to handle their legal proceedings.

法律上の手続きを取り扱おうにも

The problem is that there were way more

ボランティアの弁護士頼みでした

than there were lawyers who had both the interest and the expertise to work on these cases.

困ったことに 死刑囚の数は

And so inevitably,

死刑に関心と専門性を有する弁護士の数よりも 遥かに多いのです

lawyers drifted to cases that were already in chapter 4.

必然的に

that makes sense, of course. Those are the cases in the most urgent.

第４章の案件に弁護士が集まるのは無理もないことです

those are the guys who are closest to being executed.

最も緊急性の高い案件であり

Some of these lawyers were successful; they managed to get new trials for their clients.

被告に対する死刑執行が近いのです

Others of them managed to extend life for their clients sometimes by...

うまく行くと クライアントは 新たな審理を受けることになります

years, sometimes by months.

またクライアントが長く生きられる場合もあります

But the one thing that didn't happen

ときには数年 ときには数ヶ月

was that there was never a serious and sustained decline in the number of

しかしテキサスで１年間に執行される

annual executions in Texas.

死刑の件数が大幅に減り続けるという

In fact, as you can see from this graph, from the time that Texas access execution.

事態にはなりませんでした

apparatus got efficient in the mid-to-late 1990s.

実際 グラフを見ればテキサス州の死刑執行は

there've only been a couple of years where the number of annual executions dip..

90年代の半ば以降スピード化しました

below 20.

年間の執行数が20人を下回る年は

In a typical year in Texas,

ほんの2−3年だけです

we're averaging about

テキサスでは

two people a month.

典型的な件数は平均して

In some years in Texas, we've executed close the forty people and this number..

月に２人です

has never significantly declined over the last fifteen years.

40人近くを執行する年もあります

And yet, at the same time that we continue to execute

ここ15年間 この人数は特に減ったりしていません

about the same number of people every

その一方で毎年

the number of people who we're sentencing to death

ほとんど同じ人数を死刑執行しているのに

on an annual basis

一年間に死刑の判決を受ける人数は

has dropped rather steeply.

比較的急速に

So we have this paradox,

減ってきています

which is that the number of annual executions remained high.

矛盾が生じています

but the number of new death sentences has going down.

年間に処刑される人数は多いのに

Why is that?

新たな死刑判決の数は減っているのです

It can't be attributed to a decline in the murder rate,

なぜでしょう

because the murder rate has not declined

殺人事件の割合が減ったからではありません

nearly so steeply as the red line on that graph is going down.

実際 このグラフの

What has happened instead is

赤線のように急速には減っていないのです

that juries have started to sentence more and more people to prison.

その代わりにこんなことが起きたのでした

for the rest of their lives without the possibility of parole.

陪審が仮出所のない終身刑を

rather than sending them to the execution chamber.

選び始めたのです

Why has that happened?

処刑台に送る代わりにです

it hasn't happened because of a dissolution of popular supports.

どうしてこうなったのでしょう

for the death penalty. Death penalty opponents take great solace in the fact

死刑への支持基盤が失われたからではありません

that death penalty support in Texas is at the all-time low.

テキサスでの死刑賛成派の割合は過去最低となり

Do you know what all-time low in Texas means?

死刑反対派は大いに喜んでいます

It means that it's in the low 60 percent.

過去最低とはどういう意味かわかりますか？

Now that's really good compared to the mid-1980s when they was in

60パーセント前半ということです

excess of 80 percent,

賛成派が80パーセントを越えていた

but we can't explain the decline in death sentence and the afinity for

80年代中頃に比べると大幅前進です

life without the possibility of parole by an erotion of support for the death

死刑判決よりも仮出所なし終身刑が選ばれる理由は

penalty, because people still support the death penalty.

死刑に対する支持が失われたからではありません

What's happened to cause this phenomenon?

未だに死刑は支持されているからです

What's happened is

では何が起きてこうなっているのでしょう

that lawyers

実は

who represent death row inmates have shifted their focus

死刑囚の

to earlier and earlier chapters of the death penalty story

弁護を行う弁護士たちは

So 25 years ago, they focused on chapter four

死刑へのストーリーの早い段階に 力を注ぐようになったのです

And they went from chapter four 25 years ago to chapter three

25年前は第４章に注力していました

in the late 1980s.

25年前の第４章から80年代後半には

And they went from chapter three in the late 1980s to chapter two

第３章に移り

in the mid-1990s. And beginning in the mid-to-late 1990s

80年代後半の第３章から 90年代中頃には第２章に移りました

they began to focus on chapter one of the story

90年代中頃から後半には

Now you might think that this decline in death sentences and the increases in the

第１章が注力されるようになったのです

number of life sentences is a good thing or a bad thing

死刑の減少と終身刑の増加については

I don't want to have a conversation about that today.

評価は分かれるでしょう

All that I want to tell you is that the reasons of these was happened

今日はその話はしません

is because death penalty lawyers have understood

お話ししたいことは こうなった理由です

that the earlier you intervene in a case

事案に介入するのが早ければ早いほど

the greater the likelihood that you're going to save your client's life.

クライアントの命を助けられる見込みが高いことに

That's the first thing I've learned.

死刑囚の弁護士が気づいたためなのです

Here's the second thing I learned:

これが学んだことのひとつ目です

My client Will

次は２つ目です

was not the exception to the rule;

クライアントのウィルにもあてはまる

he was the rule.

法則があります

I sometimes say, if you tell me the name of a death row inmate

まさに法則どおりの展開でした

doesn't matter what state he's in, doesn't matter if I've ever met him before --

こんな話をすることがあります 死刑囚の名前を教えてくれたら

I'll write his biography for you.

彼の状態にかかわらず 面会したことの有無にかかわらず

And eight out of 10 times,

彼の生い立ちを描いてみせましょう

the details of that biography

十中八九

will be more or less accurate.

その生い立ちの記述は

And the reason for that is that 80 percent of the people on death row are

細部さえも多少なりとも重なり合っているのです

people who came from the same sort of dysfunctional family that will did.

なぜなら 80パーセントの死刑囚は

Eighty percent of the people on death row

ウィルのように崩壊した家庭に生まれているのです

are people who had exposure

死刑囚の80パーセントは