Why were the executions of Sacco Vanzetti controversial?

Answer 1

Some felt that Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted because of anti-immigrant bias present in the US at the time. They were not helped by their self-identification as anarchists, such groups having committed many violent acts against governments in Europe, and some in the US. Evidence that might not have seemed convincing in other cases was enough to convict them of a capital crime.

It should also be noted that even some people who agreed with the guilty verdict were not comfortable having anyone put to death; those people believed Sacco and Vanzetti should have received life in prison rather than the death penalty.

Answer 2

Ferdinando Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were tried in 1920 for robbery and murder, convicted, and executed in 1927. But because the men were linked to a notorious group of anarchist bombers (the Galleanists), there remains some question about the fairness of their trial, and whether their status as Italian immigrants affected their prosecution. Various claims and counter-claims were made concerning evidence in the case, most of them long after the two were dead.

Against claims that the two were unfairly convicted is the number of bombings, apparently retaliatory, that occurred against those involved in their prosecution. These support a contention by novelist H.G. Wells, that some Europeans saw the executions as politically motivated, i.e. anti-anarchist and anti-Communist.

Answer 3

APEX They were convicted of murder without hard evidence.

Answer 4

They were convicted of murder without hard evidence.