The Case Of Nicola Sacco And Bartolomeo Vanzetti

Many aspects shaped the 1920’s, and that includes the trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. The two were tried for killing a paymaster and his bodyguard. They were sentenced to the death penalty for a crime that their involvement in was questionable. Many people protested to their sentence. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti’s court sentence sparked a large debate through the nation that continues today as to whether it was justifiable or not. Nicola Sacco worked a steady job at a shoe factory in Stoughton. He took a day off of work on April 15th. Bartolomeo Vanzetti was a self-employed fish peddler in Plymouth. (Frankfurter). The two men were friends who believed the government needed to be destroyed in order to obtain social

Regardless of the evidence, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were found guilty of first degree murder on July 14, 1921 (Frankfurter). The execution took place at Charlestown State Prison (“Sacco and Vanzetti Case”). On August 23, 1927, Sacco and Vanzetti were electrocuted (Pernicone). The Sacco-Vanzetti case was an international controversy in the 1920’s (Pernicone). Many people were outraged by the sentence that Sacco and Vanzetti faced. There were many protests worldwide regarding the two Italians. An abundance of people compared the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti to that of John Brown, who was wrongly convicted of treason and murder, or even Jesus Christ. For six years the two were constantly headlining the news worldwide

Unfortunately, as time goes on a majority of forensic evidence has deteriorated (“Sacco and Vanzetti Case”). The Italian immigrants still play a role in today’s political imagination as they did back then. Moshik Temkin, an Ivy-League professor, stated, “For many, they were the innocent victims of America’s first ill-conceived ‘war on terror.’” People still wonder if Sacco and Vanzetti committed the murder. The trial is seen as unfair and their execution an unacceptable act of barbarism (Temkin). On account of the cases’ popularity, “Decades after they were sentenced to death, Sacco and Vanzetti still have their partisan defenders and accusers” (Pernicone). This demonstrates how even today, people still debate if the two men should have been convicted. In fact, “On August 23, 1977, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation that Sacco and Vanzetti had not received a fair trial” ("The Sacco-Vanzetti Case Draws National Attention"). Many people believe they were convicted due to their political beliefs and ethnic background (Sacco and Vanzetti Case). “Countless observers worldwide were convinced that political intolerance and racial bigotry had condemned two men whose only offense was that of being foreigners, atheists, and anarchists” (“Sacco and Vanzetti