advised to visit
And then I had been recommended to see one particular policeman...The Thin Blue Line · 1988 — 第 9 / 20 章 · 4'57" · C1
David Harris Gets Off Scot-Free, Explained：scot-free
The Vidor establishment explains itself without meaning to: David Harris, sixteen, admits to robberies and burglaries, yet gets off scot-free and becomes the prosecution's witness. Defense lawyers press the D.A. on it and get only, "We don't feel that way in Vidor, Texas." Meanwhile the case against Randall Adams turns on how neatly his age fits the death penalty.
あらすじ
Several voices build the chapter's case. David Harris says he robbed stores and burglarized homes in Vidor while on juvenile probation, then turned himself in. A friend says nobody believed his bragging, and defense lawyers ask the Vidor D.A. why David walks away while Randall Adams faces a death penalty case.
注目の表現
dead to rightsscot-freeon probationturn myself in
00:00 / 04:57Space 再生 · ← → セリフ移動 · R リピート
いま
このシーンの表現
scot-free
escape any punishment
The speaker asks how the man who supplied the gun and car escaped any punishment.
He hired a good lawyer and managed to get off scot-free.
このシーンの他の表現
- dead to rights
with no possible excuse
- on probation
under a suspended sentence
- turn myself in
surrender to the police
- have a conscience
feel moral guilt
- a convenient age
the right age for their purpose
このシーンのメモ一覧
73 行のセリフに 24 件のメモ
The word to reduces to a light /tə/.
And then I had been recommended to see one particular policeman...reach the answer
who had been led to the solution of this case.past perfect passive: Had been led is passive past perfect, pointing to an earlier stage of the case.
who had been led to the solution of this case.a convenience store of that kind
and had someone on the floor of a 7-Eleven type of store...and so on
Committed some other burglaries and what have you.hold up shops
He had told us he had robbed stores, and we laughed.rotated to the side
It's an old Bonnie-and-Clyde-looking hat, it's turned sideways.aw, shucks — Old-fashioned, folksy exclamation; not for formal talk.
I feel, "Shucks, I shouldn't have done that. I feel bad about it."it did not trouble him — Casual repetition stressing someone's indifference.
But it didn't bother him. Didn't bother him at all.negative question: The negative question implies he should have found it strange.
didn't he think it was strange that there was a robbery committed...collect someone by car
David Harris' automobile that picked up Randall Adams.without punishment — An idiom for escaping punishment; common in speech.
were furnished by David Harris who got off scot-free...a run of crimes
I tried to introduce the crime spree theory.a run of
The theory that David Harris was on this series of crimes...full of ill will
the heart filled with malice most apt to commit a murder.past perfect: They'd had is a contracted past perfect, marking what they already had.
They'd had a 28-year-old man.sharply conscious of
I became acutely aware of the dangers...Link aware and of so it sounds like one word.
I became acutely aware of the dangers...at the worst moment
Probably at the worst possible time to be in the FBI.The final t in worst often drops before p.
Probably at the worst possible time to be in the FBI.on the evening when
He was at the Biograph Theater the night that Dillinger was killed.relative clause: The that-clause modifies the night and pins down which one it was.
He was at the Biograph Theater the night that Dillinger was killed.taking a walk outdoors
and people were out for a walk.「David Harris Gets Off Scot-Free」を読み解く
What's really going on
The chapter is about a double standard, and it lets the people of Vidor explain it themselves. David Harris, according to his own account and a friend's, spent his probation robbing stores and burglarizing houses; the friend even gave him a hat and joked about drawing him a mustache so "nobody'll know who you are." When David called at 2 a.m. to confess — "I did it. Will you come and get me?" — the friend's verdict is blunt: "He didn't have a conscience." Yet it is Randall Adams, twenty-eight and from out of state, who is charged with the killing. The defense pushes the D.A. on the contradiction: the pistol and the car belonged to David, who "got off scot-free" and became a witness for the prosecution. The answer is the chapter title in disguise: "We don't feel that way in Vidor, Texas. We're not that keen on ruining a young man's life." Randall was chosen because he was 'a convenient age' — old enough for the death penalty.
Theme
JusticeThe same crimes make a local boy a witness and an outsider a death-penalty defendant, and the men who decide say so out loud.
ClassDavid is protected because he is one of Vidor's own; Randall is expendable because he is a drifter with no local ties.
このチャプターで学べること
- The same man can supply the weapon and still be the state's witness.
- A convenient age can decide who faces the harshest charge.
- Saying someone has no conscience is a verdict, not a description.
- A family story can reveal where a view of the law began.
発音のポイント
- recommended to — The word to reduces to a light /tə/.
- aware of — Link aware and of so it sounds like one word.
- worst possible — The final t in worst often drops before p.
He didn't have a conscience.A friend's blunt reading of David Harris: he could confess to serious crimes and feel nothing, which is what makes him frightening rather than just reckless.
But it didn't bother him. Didn't bother him at all.The same idea, repeated slowly for emphasis — not guilt, not regret, nothing. The pause around it is the point.
Not that they had him so dead to rights.The defense attorney's caveat: this was not a case of overwhelming proof but of opportunity — David fit the law's idea of a defendant better.
But just that he was a convenient age.The heart of the accusation: Randall was charged not because he was guiltiest, but because he was the right age to receive the death penalty.
Eventually I turned myself in for this stuff in Vidor.David Harris closes the loop on his own crimes: after the robberies and burglaries, he walked into the Vidor authorities and gave them himself.
My father was an FBI man.The prosecutor's proud origin story: law enforcement was a family calling, and the Dillinger manhunt belongs to his father's era.
このシーンについての質問
Why does David Harris get off scot-free?
He is sixteen and from Vidor, and the county does not want to "ruin a young man's life." Instead of prosecuting him, officials use him as a witness, even though the pistol and car in the case were his.
Who says "We don't feel that way in Vidor, Texas"?
The Vidor district attorney, asked why the same evidence sends the older, out-of-state Randall Adams to trial while David Harris walks free. It is the chapter's clearest statement of a local double standard.
What is the 'crime spree theory' the defense tried to introduce?
The argument that David Harris committed a series of crimes both before and after the officer's killing, and was therefore the likelier killer. The judge refused to let the jury hear it.
Why was Randall Adams eligible for the death penalty?
Because he was twenty-eight. Texas law did not allow the death penalty for a sixteen-year-old, so prosecutors pursued the older defendant — a point the defense calls the case's real motive: he was just "a convenient age."
Who is the man talking about his father in the FBI?
It is the prosecutor, describing a family devoted to law enforcement. He notes his father was at the Biograph Theater in Chicago the night John Dillinger was killed, tying his own career to that era.
The Thin Blue Line · 全 20 章
すべて見る →
次のチャプター · 第 10 章cover forWhy the Story Was Two Hours Late
第 1 章meant to beRandall Meets David at the Gas Station
第 2 章give a damnDetective Forces Adams to Sign
第 3 章graveyard shiftOfficer Wood Shot at Traffic Stop
第 4 章swear up and downDavid Harris Brags About the Killing
第 5 章come to find outRecounting the Night of the Shooting
第 6 章acting strangeRandall Recounts the Motel Night
第 7 章went blankAdams's Statement Labeled a Confession
第 8 章under the impressionThe Car With No Bullet Marks
再生中 · 第 9 章scot-freeDavid Harris Gets Off Scot-Free
第 10 章cover forWhy the Story Was Two Hours Late
第 11 章refreshed her memoryMrs. Miller Changes Her Story
第 12 章hinge onA Couple Witnesses the Shooting
第 13 章wheels start rollingWitnesses Testify for Money
第 14 章without remorseDr. Grigson's Prison Test
第 15 章put food on the tableDr. Death Takes the Stand
第 16 章hard-nosedRandall Adams on Death Row
第 17 章set the wheels of justice in motionThe Case the Supreme Court Reversed
第 18 章came over meDavid Harris's Same M.O.
第 19 章tore my head offThe Scales Are Not Balanced
第 20 章point-blank rangeDavid Harris Confesses in the Bayou第 9 / 20 章 · 残り約 47 分