Bartolomeo Vanzetti Fair Trial Essay

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The question of whether or not Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti received a fair trial is still in dispute today. Many people during the time of the case believed that the men were “executed on murder based on doubtful ballistic evidence” because of the hostility towards immigrants due to the Red Scare and World War 1 (“Perfect Suspects, Unfair Trials”). The evidence provided during the trial showed that the men were found guilty due to the fact that they were in anarchist groups and were active members of multiple militant groups. Sacco and Vanzetti were victims of intense xenophobia because of being Italian immigrants. This gave the courts the ability to declare a verdict on their ethnicity; therefore, we now have laws to protect the defendant from an unfair trial. The background of the crime scene and case was revealed in front of the court system stating that “On April 15, 1920, a paymaster[Frederick Parmenter] and a payroll guard[Alessandro Berardelli] carrying a factory payroll of $15,776 were shot to death during a robbery in Braintree, Massachusetts, near Boston. About three weeks later, Sacco and Vanzetti were …show more content…
“This type of brutal murder and robbery was not uncommon in the post World War I America; therefore at this stage in the crime, it only aroused local interest” (D’Attilio). As found in later research, since the crime was not so uncommon, interest was not drawn until the trial started to last several years. During the trial, guns were used very frequently in crimes like this one, in fact, “The men had a .32 caliber pistol fully loaded with 9 bullets. Also had a 23 .32 caliber bullet, a loaded .38 caliber, 4 12 gauge shotgun shells and a anarchist flyer on scene when arrested” (Costly). During the 1920s, the most common types of guns were ones that can be easily hid in pockets or cars, which the both men were carrying when

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