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“Just because you do something wrong doesn’t make it a crime,”
“僅僅因為做錯事是不能構成犯罪的，”
Mr. McNamara said, explaining why he brought no charges.
麥克納馬拉解釋了自己為什么沒有提出指控。
“After everything was done, and everyone was interviewed, we came to the conclusion that he just forgot,
“做完所有調查，采訪完所有人之后，我們認為，他真的就是忘了而已，
and I don’t think the law punishes forgetting.”
而且我不認為法律會懲罰遺忘。”
The Herkimer County district attorney, Jeffrey S. Carpenter, came to a similar conclusion about Alan Lyon,
何基莫縣地方檢察官杰弗里·S.卡彭特在處理艾倫里昂一案時，他曾在把兩個稍大的孩子送到學校后，
who left 15-month old Sophia alone in a sweltering car after dropping off her siblings.
將15個月大的索菲亞獨自留在了悶熱的車里，也得出了類似的結論。
“I looked at everything I could regarding the father, his prior history,
“我什么都查過了，有無前科，
his conduct, whether there was obsessive alcohol use, anything,” Mr. Carpenter said.
平時的表現，有無酗酒問題等等，”卡彭特說。
“And everything in this case came back to he simply forgot she was in the car.”
“所有的線索都指向了同一個結論：他就是忘了她還在車里了而已。”
In the New York cases that resulted in charges,
在紐約那些以指控收尾的案件中，
there were early hints that something else besides mere forgetting was at play.
有初步跡象表明，除了單純的遺忘，還有別的因素在起作用。
In April 2004, for instance, a Long Island mother, Yesenia Brito, was charged with criminally negligent homicide
2004年4月，長島的一位母親葉塞尼亞·布里托被控過失殺人罪，
after she left her infant daughter, Jada, in a parking lot while she worked a shift at a pediatrician’s office in West Hempstead.
原因是她將尚在襁褓中的女兒加達留在停車場，自己便去西亨普斯特德的兒科醫生辦公室輪班了。
The police said she initially lied about the child’s whereabouts.
警方表示，她最初謊報了孩子的下落。
Later, at sentencing, she apologized for leaving the child in the car, saying she did not think the baby would be harmed.
后來，在宣判時，她為把孩子留在車里道了歉，聲稱她以為孩子不會受到傷害。
She was sentenced to a year in jail.
最終，她被判處一年監禁。
Murder cases, where prosecutors argue that a parent left a child in a hot car with the intent to kill, are almost unheard-of.
到目前為止，筆者還幾乎未曾聽說檢察官認為父母把孩子留在溫度較高的車內是意圖殺害孩子的謀殺案件。
But a jury determined that this happened in at least one high-profile case.
但某陪審團認定，至少有一起備受矚目的案件確實屬于這類情況。
In June 2014, Justin Ross Harris, a father in Marietta, Ga.,
2014年6月，佐治亞州瑪麗埃塔的一名父親賈斯汀·羅斯·哈里斯
stopped at a Chick-fill-A for breakfast with his 22-month-old son, Cooper.
和22個月大的兒子庫珀在一家Chick-fill-A吃過早餐，
He then drove to work and left Cooper strapped in a rear-facing car seat in a sweltering parking lot for seven hours.
便驅車去上班，把還在后座上的庫珀留在悶熱的停車場里長達7個小時。
Cooper died.
庫珀不幸離開了人世。
Mr. Harris claimed his son’s death was an accident.
哈里斯聲稱兒子的死是一場意外。
But prosecutors moved ahead with murder charges.
但檢察官還是對他提出了謀殺指控。
They found that Mr. Harris had exchanged lewd text messages and pictures with at least six women,
他們發現，就在兒子去世那天，哈里斯還同至少六名女性，其中還有一名未成年人
including a minor, on the day of his son’s death.
交換過淫穢短信及照片。
A jury agreed with prosecutors that Mr. Harris wanted his son out of his life.
陪審團同意檢察官所持觀點，認為哈里斯希望兒子離開自己的生活。
Mr. Harris was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
哈里斯被判有罪，判處終身監禁。
He is now attempting to appeal.
目前，他正準備上訴。
Charles P. Boring, the assistant district attorney in Cobb County who handled the case, said
負責此案的科布縣助理地區檢察官查爾斯·P.伯寧表示，
prosecutors need to ignore the emotions surrounding hot-car cases and follow the evidence.
檢察官們需要撇開圍繞孩子死于高溫車內案件的情緒，追尋證據。
“It’s a difficult situation and people get caught up in the emotion of it one way or the other,
“這種情況確實很為難，不管怎樣，人們都會被情緒沖昏頭腦，
either thinking nobody could ever do this, or people can always do this,” Mr. Boring said.
要么認為根本不會有人做出這種事，要么認為大家總能做出這種事，”伯寧說。
“Like most things, it’s never black and white.”
“但和大多數事情一樣，這一問題從來就不是那么絕對。”
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