慘不忍睹的家庭慘案

一千七百多年前的中國三國時期，曹操手下有位大將叫夏候敦。曹操征張繡時，夏候敦被張繡部將曹性射中左眼，敦大叫一聲，拔箭帶出眼珠， 乃大呼曰："父精母血，不可棄也"。遂納於口中吞下，複挺槍縱馬，直追曹性。兩邊軍士見者，無不悚然。

身體發膚，受之父母，不能毀棄也。這是中國古代人的觀念。在尚武人眼中，夏候敦從此成了英雄。

話又說回來，兩軍交戰，血肉橫飛環境特殊。尋常人也會生出異常之舉，殺紅眼了，慫人變牛人，氣吞山河。

一千七百多年後的今日美國，美國有位死囚犯人，在牢中因精神異常，也挖出自己眼珠吞下。真是美國社會的光怪陸離事又一樁，聽了讓人惡心。但學英語了解美國社會，好壞都該有，擇優避劣會給人以biased picture，生出錯覺。

下麵請看新聞:

Texas death row inmate pulls out eye, eats it

A Texas death row inmate with a history of mental problems pulled out his only good eye and told authorities he ate it. Andre Thomas, 25, was arrested for the fatal stabbings of his estranged wife, their young son and her 13-month-old daughter in March 2004. Their hearts also had been ripped out. He was convicted and condemned for the infant's death.

While in the Grayson County Jail in Sherman, Thomas plucked out his right eye before his trial later in 2004. A judge subsequently ruled he was competent to stand trial.

A death-row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and took him to the infirmary.

"Thomas said he pulled out his eye and subsequently ingested it," agency spokesman Jason Clark said Friday.

Thomas was treated at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler after the Dec. 9 incident. Then he was transferred and remains at the Jester Unit, a prison psychiatric facility near Richmond southwest of Houston.

"He will finally be able to receive the mental health care that we had wanted and begged for from day 1," Bobbie Peterson-Cate, Thomas' trial attorney, told the Sherman Herald Democrat. "He is insane and mentally ill. It is exactly the same reason he pulled out the last one."

At his trial, defense lawyers also argued he suffered from alcohol and drug abuse.

Thomas does not have an execution date.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in October upheld his conviction and death sentence for the death of 13-month-old Leyha Marie Hughes. Also killed March 27, 2004, were his wife, Laura Christine Boren, 20, and their son, 4-year-old Andre Lee.

Thomas, from Texoma, walked into the Sherman Police Department and told a dispatcher he had just murdered the three and had stabbed himself in the chest.

Thomas told police how he put his victims' hearts in his pocket and left their apartment, took them home, put them in a plastic bag and threw them in the trash.

Court documents described the three victims as having "large, gaping wounds to their chests."

這新聞讀起來讓人毛骨聳然，我們趕緊轉移一下注意力，把交點放在詞匯學習上。

mental:  精神病叫mental problems；某人有精神病可以說是he/she has mental problems，也可以說是he/she is mentally sick。但mentality卻一般不是指精神有病，而是指思維方式。比如: "His/her mentality is totally different"或"He/she has a different mentality"，是說某人的想法/思維方式與別人不一樣，這和他/她的精神狀態正常與否無關。

authorities: 監獄當局或警察當局
stabbing:  用刀戳殺，fatal stabbing是戳殺致死。犯人Thomas才二十五歲，在04年他殺死了他離異的妻子，以及他的兒子和十三個月大的女兒。Thomas是個惡魔，虎毒還不食子呢，這位不僅殺死了自己的一雙兒女，還把他們的心挖了出來(ripped out)，真叫一個慘。

pluck(常與out連用): 是"拔"、"摘"或"拉走"的意思，比如說，拔雞毛=pluck feathers；把孩子從街裏拉走 = pluck the child from the middle of the street；有些女孩喜歡"拔眉毛"，英文就是"pluck one's eyebrows。這詞容易讓人想起另外一詞:  plug(常和in連用)，意思是"插進"或"插入"，把電器的電源插進接線板，在電腦網上下載軟件(插入軟件)，都可用plug in。

"He was competent to stand trial"是什麽意思?  Thomas的魔鬼行為很容易讓辯護律師以他有精神病作為辯詞，而如果法官(judge)認為他有能力接受審判，則這樣的辯詞就會無效。這句話的意思正是: 法官裁定(ruled)他依舊有能力接受審判(雖然他有某種程度的精神病)。

death-row:  死刑犯名冊
cell:  獄舍中每位犯人的監室，可不是cell phone裏cell的意思。後者是cellular的縮寫，而前者單獨成字 -- 此cell非同彼cell。

infirmary:  醫院是hospital，診所是clinic，那infirmary是什麽?  有點像中國的醫務室。醫院和診所都是正規看病的場所，而一些單位自擁醫務室，做些另時的簡單處理。顯然，監獄需要這麽一種設施。從詞義上講，firm有"穩健強實"的意思，而infirm取其反義，就變成"弱不禁風"、"病殃殃"、"老弱病殘"的意思。這些"病殃殃"患者常去的地方就是infirmary了。

Ingested:  進肚消化了。看到這詞，我們還可以聯想到digest和congest，知道後兩個詞的意思嗎?  我們又怎麽把ingest、digest和congest三詞在詞根上串在一起呢?

psychiatric facility:  看管精神病患者的地方，正規的叫法是psychiatric hospital，也有叫psychiatric asylum(精神病患者的避難者--也挺貼切)，這些都是psychiatric patients' sanctuary。

defense lawyer: 辯護律師，但上邊又用了另外一詞: trial attorney。律師一詞在英語國家有若幹個:  lawyer，attorney，barrister，solicitor，counselor，advocate等，這叫一個混亂 (如果要弄清這六位律師的不同，見相關詞匯篇)。

execution date: 死刑執行日期。
uphold:  法律上的"維持原判"。這Thomas畢竟殺了他自己13個月大的女兒、4歲的兒子和離異的20歲妻子。

dispatcher:  當警察排除執勤時，就叫做dispatcher。

更惡心的是，案後是Thomas自己去警局投案，告訴警察他殺了三人並給自己當胸一刀--好一番"英雄氣概"。這魔鬼還把告訴警察他如何把受害的心挖出放在塑料兜裏再扔進垃圾桶 -- 禽獸不如啊!

法院文件上也說，受害者都被"開膛破肚"(large, gaping wounds to their chests)。

這種血淋淋的人間慘案，讀了讓人要吐。美國社會有不少健康向上的因素，但也有很多奇形發展的方方麵麵，這例慘案正是反映了美國社會奇形怪狀的一角。