Most people when asked do not know who Sacco and Vanzetti are, or that they were convicted and executed for murder and robbery, but there remains much controversy over the case. Was it a fair case or was the nativism too strong and they were found guilty because of association.
Both men were born in Italy and immigrated to the U.S in 1908. Both worked hard low paying jobs, but remained very loyal to their home country, and many of the ideas and beliefs Italy had. Both of them ended up being associated with the wrong crowd. As time when on they became active members of the anarchist movement in the United States. This was likely a part of the reason they met, and the reason they were not given a fair trial.
The crime took place one day in 1920. These two men whose names didn't matter were picking up cash boxes to take to a local shoe factory. While they were doing so, they were jumped and eventually shot, killed, and the money they were transporting was stolen. Due to high levels of inconclusive evidence and no other close enough suspects, Sacco and Vanzetti were charged and quickly found guilty of the crime. The list of evidence includes seven so called eyewitness with their own accounts of the crime, the fact that the gunmen's race was most likely Italian. Also Sacco and Vanzetti happened to not be at work the day the crime took place. Personally I do not believe that the evidence listed above was enough to convict these two men to death row and end their life. The amounts of evidence presented in this case for both sides was staggering. However, it seems like no matter how much evidence the defense had that there were other forces at work when the jury made their final ruling. This trial took place during a time where Nativism was the mindset of most Americans , and anything or anyone that wasn't born or made in america was wrong. We have to look at all the evidence surrounding the case, and try to understand it as the scared naive american's on the jury would have seen it. The technology of the time left them to where they could not match the bullets to either gun the men owned, they had no positive identifications from prints or cameras of the two men. The case was built on testimony and here-say, and maybe a little nativism as well.
Truth is, they probably were innocent. The real killers lived on with the guilt of two more deaths on their soul. I think that our government isn't perfect but we should not be able to kill someone unless there is a stronger case than the prosecution had built on them
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