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Ferdinando Nicola Sacco (April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were two Italian-born American laborers and anarchists, who were tried, convicted and executed via electrocution on August 23, 1927 in Massachusetts for the 1920 armed robbery and murder of two pay-clerks in Braintree, Massachusetts. [1] [2]
This is a draft version of the article Sacco and Vanzetti. |
The case continues to excite controversy today, on two fronts:
- Culpability: the question of the innocence or guilt of Sacco and Vanzetti;
- Conformance: the question of whether the trials were fair to Sacco and Vanzetti.
Neither question has a consensus answer. Many details of the case are the subject of ardent debate even today. The evidence—on both culpability and conformance—is ambiguous and inconclusive, hence highly debatable. The matter is complicated not only by the typical disagreements between witnesses, but also by several examples of witnesses not only recanting their original story, but later "re-recanting".
Most, but by no means all, modern historians would agree that Vanzetti was probably innocent, Sacco was probably guilty, and the trials were probably not up to the standard of modern American jurisprudence. All three views, though held by a majority, are themselves hedged with qualifications. Further, even with the given qualifications, many notable commentators have challenged each assessment.