Sacco and Vanzetti

Sacco and Vanzetti

Introduction

Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted of murdering Frederick Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli in 1920. The robbers attacked the two victims while they were carrying out the payroll of the company they worked in, in order to deliver it to the main factory. Berardelli, who was the guard and had a gun, was slit down as he tried to shoot the robbers whereas Parmenter was shot twice and the second shot proved to be fatal for him. The robbers stole the boxes of payroll and fled in a car, while firing gunshots at the company staff in the surroundings (Avrich, 1996).

They were executed on 23rd August, 1927. Even though they did not have any past criminal record, the authorities identified them as anarchist militants who caused political agitation and had a history of involvement in labor strikes. They were also a part of the antiwar propaganda and were in favor of Cronaca Sovversiva, which was an Italian journal by Luigi Galleani and had the title of being the most powerful anarchist journal in the country. This is the reason it raised concern for the authorities because it was centered around militancy propagated revolt.

After the indictment was announced for their case, their fellow anarchists and Galleanists held protests based on retaliation in not just the United States, but also abroad. Even though it was opposing to the way courts of Massachusetts worked, Vanzetti was tried on account of the robbery he had carried out at Bridgewater. Despite the fact that the witnesses produced in the court trial went in Vanzetti's favor, he was declared guilty. This is because most of Vanzetti's were only fluent in speaking Italian, and when they gave testimonies with the help of translators, they failed to make their points clear to the American jurors (Avrich, 1996).

The first trial took place on 22 June, 1920, with Frederick Katzmann prosecuting the case. In the first trial, Sacco was not tried, and Vanzetti chose to get the services of defense lawyer John P. Vahey instead of being represented by the counsel of the court. The witnesses brought forward on the part of defense were sixteen but were all Italian so they could not converse in proper English and some needed the help of a translator, who himself was not well versed with the Italian language. The prosecution lawyer took this to his advantage and by resorting to unethical means, he rebutted the testimonies of the witnesses. Vanzetti refused to testify in his defense and did not do so even when Vahey insisted that he does so. He did this after consultation with Sacco (Avrich, 1996), and because he knew that prosecution lawyer will try to trick him during cross examination so that he could accuse him. This decision of his, however, proved to be seriously damaging for his case as he did not take stand in his own defense. For this case, Vanzetti was given a ten to fifteen years sentence on August 16, ...