After Reconstruction capital punishment became a more popular in the United States, and it was not just against the poor or African Americans. Some court cases can define an era in time and solidify beliefs about the public and the people who are sentenced. Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco “committed” a crime of robbery and murder and became sentenced in July 1921 and found guilty on all accounts. With the end of World War One came about a feeling of unrest in the United States, and most of this stemmed from the threat of communists and anarchists which caused a revolution in Russia in 1917, which struck fear in most Americans because of the potential of government overthrow. Sacco and Vanzetti were immigrants from Italy during the massive
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One capital punishment case that stands out during the 1930s is the Scottsboro case, and the implications of this case are true throughout the first half of the 20th century. 9 African American males aboard a train in Alabama got into an altercation with white passengers that resulted in the white passengers being thrown off the train, so the nine African American males became put into custody for assault. While the nine boys are in jail, two women Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, also aboard the same train, stated to the police that they had been raped by 12 African American males holding guns and knives, and Price was able to pick six out of the nine boys as her rapists. Even before the trial started local newspapers read, “All negroes positively identified by the girls and one white boy who was held prisoner with pistol and knives while nine black friends committed revolting crime.” The crime happened in the South during a time where African Americans had limited rights and still struggled to break free from social prejudices, the combination of the “crime” and where it was committed allowed for overt racism. Although there was no physical evidence linking any of the boys to the rape of the two girls, beside the girl’s testimonies, who had sex with the white passengers in the earlier altercation, and a white male, who was in the losing …show more content…
Prison officials began assembling teams to investigate, “the most humane and practical method known to modern science of carrying into effect the sentence of death.” The solution of most legislatures was the electric chair, which was created in Thomas Edison’s workshop in 1887 for the use of New York legislators looking for more humane methods. New York became the first state to implement the use of the chair when they
One capital punishment case that stands out during the 1930s is the Scottsboro case, and the implications of this case are true throughout the first half of the 20th century. 9 African American males aboard a train in Alabama got into an altercation with white passengers that resulted in the white passengers being thrown off the train, so the nine African American males became put into custody for assault. While the nine boys are in jail, two women Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, also aboard the same train, stated to the police that they had been raped by 12 African American males holding guns and knives, and Price was able to pick six out of the nine boys as her rapists. Even before the trial started local newspapers read, “All negroes positively identified by the girls and one white boy who was held prisoner with pistol and knives while nine black friends committed revolting crime.” The crime happened in the South during a time where African Americans had limited rights and still struggled to break free from social prejudices, the combination of the “crime” and where it was committed allowed for overt racism. Although there was no physical evidence linking any of the boys to the rape of the two girls, beside the girl’s testimonies, who had sex with the white passengers in the earlier altercation, and a white male, who was in the losing …show more content…
Prison officials began assembling teams to investigate, “the most humane and practical method known to modern science of carrying into effect the sentence of death.” The solution of most legislatures was the electric chair, which was created in Thomas Edison’s workshop in 1887 for the use of New York legislators looking for more humane methods. New York became the first state to implement the use of the chair when they