Innocent Until Proven Guilty

1
Innocent Until Proven Guilty?

• Sacco Vanzetti
• (Image courtesy of http//www.english.upenn.edu/a
  filreis/88/sacvan.html
• By Joanne Yi

2
Sacco and Vanzetti Justice Undone

• http//cityhonors.buffalo.k12.ny.us/city/aca/hist/
  apus/histjr.html
• The South Braintree holdup occurred
  on April 15,
  1920, where Frederick
  Parmenter and Alessandro
  Berardelli
  was shot dead while carrying a
  shoe
  factorys payroll of 15,776. Nicola
  Sacco and
  Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two
  anarchists, were identified
  as the
  robbers. On July 14, 1921 the jury
  
  found both Sacco and Vanzetti guilty
  
  of robbery and murder. Both men
  were
  hung on August 23, 1927.
• (Image taken from
  http//www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/S
  accoV/SACCOV.jpg)

3
Anarchism

• http//www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAanarchist.
  htm
• Anarchism is a political theory opposed to all
  forms of government, laws, police or other
  authority. Anarchists believe that humanity
  should be a free association of all members able
  to express themselves, unhindered by any form of
  repression.
• Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were two
  Italian immigrants convicted of murder for their
  anarchist beleifs.

4
Nicola Sacco

• http//www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAasccoN.htm
  
• Nicola Sacco was born on April 22, 1891 in Italy.
  At the age of seventeen he emigrated to the
  United States. Later he got married and started a
  family. Also, he became involved in left-wing
  politics and met Bartolomeo Vanzetti at an
  anarchist meeting. Sacco and Vanzetti were
  accused of the South Braintree Holdup mainly
  because they were both carrying guns upon their
  arrest. Some people disagreed and claimed they
  had good alibis Sacco was in Boston getting a
  picture taken with his family.

5
Bartolomeo Vanzetti

• http//www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAvanzetti.h
  tm
• Bartolomeo Vanzetti was born on June 11, 1888 in
  an Italian town of Villaffalletto. When Vanzetti
  was twenty, he emigrated to the United States and
  settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where he
  earned a living as a fish peddler. Vanzetti was
  appalled by the way working class immigrants were
  treated thus, became involved in left-wing
  politics. Vanzetti and Sacco were charged with
  the murders, where it was argued they committed
  the robbery to fund their anarchist campaign.
  However, some said Vanzetti had a good alibi of
  selling fish in Plymouth. Years after the
  execution, in 1977, Michael Dukakis, Governor of
  Massachusetts, absolved the two men of the crime.

6
Old Judge Thayer

• http//www.geocities.com/Nashville/3448/thayer.htm
  lhisbg
• The role of a judge's charge is to aid the jury
  to sort the relevant from the irrelevant, to
  weigh wisely, and to judge objectively. A trial
  judge in Massachusetts is not allowed to express
  his own opinion. However, in drawing evidence
  together and organizing the claims on both sides
  he must exercise a thorough regard for relevance
  and proportion. Yet, Judge Thayer was biased
  against Sacco and Vanzetti. He was indignant
  towards them for their lack of loyalty by evading
  the war. From the conduct and tactics the judged
  used, no wonder Sacco and Vanzetti were
  convicted.

7
The Legacy of Sacco VanzettiThe Trials

• http//www.crimelibrary.com/sacco/saccotrials.htm
• Vanzetti was represented by J.P. Vahey, who would
  defend him on the basis of the testimony of
  sixteen fellow Italians who had seen him peddling
  fish at the time the holdup. Frederick Katzmann
  prosecuted for the state, who only had one
  witness who was positive that Vanzetti was one of
  the holdup men, testifying that he had a "trimmed
  mustache," where as Vanzetti's was large and
  bushy. The jury found Vanzetti guilty and Judge
  Thayer sentenced him to fifteen years in
  Charlestown State Penitentiary, wher the usual
  sentence for robbery was eight to ten.
• Sacco was represented by Fred H. Moore and once
  again the prosecutor was Katzmann and Webster
  Thayer as judge. The case for the prosecution was
  developed along three principal lines. First,
  Katzmann produced eye-witnesses that placed Sacco
  in the area of the killings. Then, Katzmann
  centered on the bullets. Lastly, the third line
  of the being "consciousness of guilt," that Sacco
  and Vanzetti behaved like guilty men.

8
The Red Scare

• http//www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/S
  accoV/redscare.html
• The Red Scare took place shortly after the end of
  World War I and Bolshevik Revolution. In 1919, a
  national fear of communists, socialists,
  anarchists, and other nonconformists held the
  nation in fear.  Innocent people were jailed for
  expressing their views, civil liberties were
  disregarded, and many Americans feared that a
  Bolshevik-style revolution was to spread to the
  states. The Red Scare was soon over in the early
  1920s as quick as it came.

9
Sacco Vanzetti, M. Butterfly, 9.11

• Correlations among Sacco and Vanzetti, M.
  Butterfly, and the tragedy of September 11th can
  be shown in several ways. During the times of the
  Red Scare, people were scared of those different,
  who did not conform, fearing communism would
  disseminate to America. In relation to M.
  Butterfly, a similar incident occurred. The west,
  did not trust Communist China. Also, because Song
  Liling was different, a homosexual, he was not
  accepted in China. As many Americans were biased
  on Italian immigrants having anarchical views
  those few years ago, this is reoccurring today.
  After the events of September 11, many people are
  quick to judge Muslims assuming them to all be
  terrorists. We should learn from past experiences
  and not judge or place stereotypes.