toll v. 復習
ペンシルベニア州の警察官二人を撃ち、一人を殺したとして逮捕された男性が死刑判決を言い渡されました。
Jury sentences ambush killer to death penalty
A bell tolled the fate of a gunman after a jury on Wednesday condemned him to die for shooting two Pennsylvania troopers at their barracks in a late-night ambush, killing one and leaving a second with devastating injuries.
Eric Frein, 33, was sentenced by a jury to death by lethal injection a week after his conviction on charges including murder of a law enforcement officer and terrorism.
"Jurors have delivered full justice in this case and issued the penalty that is so richly deserved by Eric Frein," said District Attorney Ray Tonkin.
Prosecutors said Frein was hoping to start an uprising against the government when he opened fire with a rifle on the Blooming Grove barracks in the Pocono Mountains in 2014. Cpl. Bryon Dickson II, a Marine veteran and married father of two, was killed in the late-night ambush, and Trooper Alex Douglass was critically wounded.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/jury-begin-weighing-sentence-police-ambush-killer-47022021
取り上げる単語は"toll"です。しばしば、"death toll"で「死者数」という意味が使われていますが、ここでは動詞で使われています。
『ジーニアス英和辞典』第４版（大修館）で調べてみると、「（鐘）を撞く、ゴーンゴーンと鳴らす」や「（鐘、時計が）（時刻を）打つ、告げる、…を鐘を鳴らして知らせる」などと載っていました。そういえば、１年生のときに読んだHemingwayの作品がFor Whom the Bell Tolls（「誰がために鐘はなる」）だったことを今、思い出しました。
今回の記事では、「運命を告げた」つまり、「死刑宣告された」ことを表しています。(Akim)
