Saccos And Vanzetti's Trial Analysis

Though it may seem that the debate over the death penalty only most recently surfaced, the dreadful tradition of capital punishment arrived in the United States at the time of the colonists. In the 17th century, most people were hung, beheaded, burned alive, or crushed under stones. All of these were in public, where a large crowd gathered to watch the horrible sight, similar to the tradition in old Europe. Eventually, the 19th century favored hanging as the most common form of execution. This marked the start of a more humane approach accepted as constitutional as executions moved away from the public eye. More developments came in the 1800’s as a movement to abolish capital punishment arose. This effort was stalled for a time during the Civil

Chapter 11, Saco and Vanzetti, in After the Fact begins with a story of an armed robbery in a bank and an armed robbery and murder to a man on the side of the road in Massachusetts during the time of the nativist mood in America. The Braintree and Bridgewater crimes, in 1919 and 1920, seemed to show a patterned and drew attention to Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian anarchists, where were soon arrested for the crimes. After a long trial, suspicious evidence and six years of appeals the two were convicted and sentenced to the electric chair. Moving on in the chapter we are introduced to another story, around the same time as the previous one, of employers going on strike and radicals creating an uprising in the labor industries.

On Saturday, December 1, 1900, a man named John Hossack was killed in his sleep with a hatchet by his wife, Margaret Hossack. The story told by Margaret was that she had heard what sounded like two boards banging together and by that time the attacker had fled and she didn’t catch a glimpse of him. The next thing she saw was her extremely wounded husband, John, who had a five-inch cut into his head and a fractured skull. A doctor, who came and examined John, and said there was no hope and John died the next morning. As an investigation started, a burglary was thought of as the first motive but the idea flawed because nothing was stolen so the idea was quickly abandoned. In the 4 days between the murder and the funeral, the police talked to

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti “two obscure Italian aliens, became the focal point of one of the most controversial episodes in American history”;(ATF CH11p257) when they were arrested on May 5, 1920 for “suspicious character” and connection with the Slater Morrill Shoe Company robbery. Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested carrying hunting weapons and extra ammunition on the way to pick up Mike Boba’s car, which was believed to have connected them to robbery of the Slater Morrill Shoe Company that had occurred on April 15, 1920. Sacco and Vanzetti’s actions depicted “the kind of foreign menace American nativist most feared” (ATF chapter 11p 270), making them prime suspects for the robbery. However the lack of evidence that existed to convict Sacco and Vanzetti lead to the exposure of the fault lines that existed

In David M. Oshinsky’s book, Capital Punishment on Trial: Furman v. Georgia and the Death Penalty in Modern America, he discussed the case of Furman v. Georgia. He explores the controversy that capital punishment holds in the United States of America. The death penalty has been in practice for many centuries. For example, “In Massachusetts, where religion had played a key role in settlement, crimes like blasphemy, witchcraft, sodomy, adultery, and incest became capital offenses, through juries sometimes hesitated to convict” (Oshinsky, 2010). For the punishment of death these offenses do not fit the crime. However, capital punishment at this time was rarely criticized. The death penalty demanded many executions including public ones. Many of these were hangings and were public events. After the American Revolution the death penalty began to be questioned. For example, Benjamin Rush stated, “Capital punishments are the offspring of monarchial governments. Kings believe that they possess their crowns by a divine right. They assume the divine power of taking away human life” (Oshinsky, 2010). By the 1840’s there were organized groups opposing the death penalty such as the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment. Within the coming years, the support for capital punishment fluctuated. Throughout the book, Oshinsky explores the many cases leading up to the Furman v. Georgia decision.

On April 15, 1920, the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, fell victim to an armed robbery. According to Louis Stark’s article “Are Sacco and Vanzetti Really Guilty,” “...two men shot and killed a paymaster and his guard carrying $15,700”(Stark 1). According to witnesses these men were middle-aged Italian immigrants and possessed 32-caliber automatic handguns(1). As eye-witnesses were

On November 15th, 1959, Herbert Clutter and three of his family were murdered in Holcomb, Kansas. At first, the killers were unknown, and the neighborhood suspected each other because they were terrified that the killers could be among one of the people living in Holcomb. So, the KBI was asked to solve this mission even though they were struggle a lot with finding who were the real killers. Nevertheless, eventually, the KBI had found two murders who were known as Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. After a long period of trials from the quan tòa, the two killers were sentenced to death.

By 1920, the Puritan legacy, the cant of nativist racists, the economic wars, World War One, the crime wave, and the Red Scare had conditioned the American people to fear and despise certain groups. These groups usually included eastern and southern Europeans. The arrest and trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti was fixated more on the battle between Anarchy and American traditions rather than the actual evidence the prosecution presented. The Red Scare played a massive part in this. The Sacco and Vanzetti case reflects the fears of immigration, immigrant crime and anarchy.

In our book, the author sounds a bit biased as if they were convinced that Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty. Both men were found armed when arrested but the money was never allocated or seen. In contribution to the evidence, there was witnesses who could testify that they had seen those men by the factory. They were described as anarchists and brought America’s

The roaring twenties were a fun decade for america a rebirth after world war one and celebration of a growing and thriving country. It was not all celebration however, there was a dark and prejudiced side of America during this time which was especially dark for the infamous pair Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. After a string of burglaries and then a double homicide took place involving two Italian men near Sacco and Vanzetti around Charlestown Massachusetts stakes were high for the recover the criminals. Unfortunately after 20 days of searching the pair came in contact with a car linked to the crime and fitting the description as two Italian men they were arrested on May 5th 1920 (Stark) . Both men were not only foreign immigrants but

The crime occurred on April 15, 1920. The townspeople of Braintree had observed a blue car with five Italian men driving around town. The paymaster of the Slater and Morrill Shoe company and his guard were off to pick

In South Braintree, Massachusetts, two men were tried and convicted of a crime because of their ethnic background. A robbery at the Slater-Morrill Shoe Factory had taken place. As the payroll distributors were exiting, two men attacked them, snatching a box containing the money. The men leaving the factory were both shot and killed, while the two attackers escaped in a getaway car. The two suspected attackers, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, faced discrimination inside and out of the courts. In the end, both even faced the deadly electric chair. To this day, it is undetermined who the robbers are. However, many factors prevented Sacco and Vanzetti from getting a fair trial. Injustice within the courts, panic during the Red Scare, and

The case of Sacco and Vanzetti sparked a national outcry for justice as well as a national debate over American values. Two Italian immigrants, shoe operative Nicola Sacco and fish peddler Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were falsely accused robbing Braintree’s Slater and Morrill Shoe Company and murdering two of the factory’s workers (After the Fact 256). At the time of the Braintree holdup, the police were investigating a similar crime in Bridgewater. In both cases a gang was involved, and the suspects escaped in a car. Eyewitnesses believed the criminals to be Italians. So, when Sacco and Vanzetti appeared at a parking garage near Braintree and drove off in a car police suspected was getaway vehicle in both crimes, Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested

On August 23, 1927, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in one of the most iconic and infamous trials in American history. Since that date, historians have argued on the attitudes surrounding this case that gained global attention throughout the 1920s. Immediately following the execution of these Italian anarchists, the liberal public expressed outrage and contempt for the verdict. Felix Frankfurter, in 1927 wrote a piece entitled, “The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti,” which dug into the injustices of the court. Frankfurter was appalled at how the justice system conducted the hearing.

At the beginning of the century, Americans were disappointed with the outcome of the European war. This resulted them to go against all things foreign, which included racial political ideas and immigrants. The country had to face many decisions made by communists, which created the Red Scare. The Red Scare was a spread of the fear of communism. One of the most important cases involving the Red Scare was the Sacco and Vanzetti case. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were Italian, atheists, conscientious objectors, and radicals, were both accused of the murder of a paymaster and his guard at South Braintree, Massachusetts. They were both holding revolvers and told lies to the judge and court, but the flaws in evidence proved they were not guilty. “Many critics believed that the accused had been found guilty of radicalism rather than murder- that they were martyrs in the ‘class struggle’” (Race and Ethnicity Packet). Their conviction illustrated the unfairness of the trial based on the beliefs and race. The American jury and judge for the trial was