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But Dr. Sheppard's vindicator is under no illusion as to the conditions that this "lucky" evader of the electric chair will face if he is granted parole after ten years: "It will carry with it no right to resume his life as a physician. His privilege to practice medicine was blotted out with his conviction. He must all his life bear the stigma of parolee, subject to unceremonious return to confinement for life for the slightest misstep. More than this, he must live out his life as a convicted murderer.
但谢泼德医生的辩护人对于这位免受电椅之苦的"幸运儿"，如果能在十年之后获得假释后所要面临的情况并不抱任何幻想。"那样也并不能给他恢复从医生涯的权利。他的行医资格早已随着他的判刑定罪而被取消了。他必将终生蒙受假释犯的恶名，只要再小有过失，便可随时不经审讯被送回监狱。更糟的是，他得带着杀人犯的罪名终其一生。"
What does the moral conscience of today think it is doing? If such a man is a dangerous repeater of violent acts? What right has the state to let him loose after ten years? What is, in fact, the meaning of a "life sentence" that peters out long before life? Paroling looks suspiciously like an expression of social remores for the pain of incarceration , coupled with a wish to avoid "unfavorable publicity" by freeing a suspect. The man is let out when the fuss has died down; which would mean that he was not under lock and key for our protection at all. He was being punished, just a little -for so prison seems in the abolitionist's distorted view, and in the jury's and the prosecutor's whose "second-degree" murder suggests killing someone "just a little,"
今天的道德观念究竟在起一种什么样的作用呢?假如一个人是个很可能重犯其暴力行为的危险分子，国家有什么权利在十年后将他释放出来呢?如果"终身监禁"在其生前就早已结束，那"终身监禁"的真正含义是什么呢?假释表面上看起来似乎表现了社会对身受囹圄之苦者的同情，同时又反映了当局想避免因公然释放嫌疑犯而引起"公众的不满"的愿望。所以，一旦众议平息下来，人犯也就放掉了。这样，他也就根本没有受到为了公众的安全而设置的枷锁的束缚。他确实受过惩罚，但只是一点点的惩罚--因为在废除派、陪审团及检察官们的反常观点看来，监狱本来就是这么回事。他们所谓"二级谋杀"似乎是说罪犯虽杀了人，但只是杀了"一点点"。
If, on the other hand, execution and life imprisonment are judged too severe and the accused is expected to be harmless hereafter- punishment being ruled out as illiberal- what has society gained by wrecking his life and damaging that of his family?
从另一方面来讲，既然死刑和无期徒刑被认为过分残酷，而又可预期被告人在今后对社会不会有什么危险--惩罚作为一种狭隘意识的反映已没有存在的必要--那么，破坏他和他一家人的生活对社会又能带来什么好处呢?
