Home > West's Encyclopedia of American Law > Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

The 1921 murder trial of the young Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti was one of the most controversial trials in U.S. history. For some observers, the trial was a way to bring two criminals to justice. For others, the two men were innocent of the crime but were found guilty because they were immigrants and political radicals. Defenders of Sacco and Vanzetti waged a fierce legal and public relations battle to save their lives, but the men were executed in 1927.

On April 15, 1920, in South Braintree, Massachusetts, a paymaster and a security guard for a shoe company were delivering a $15,000 payroll for the business. Two men in an automobile fatally shot the two men, stole the money, and fled. Eventually, the police focused on Sacco and Vanzetti as their prime suspects.

The men appeared to be unlikely armed robbers. They had arrived in the United States in 1908. Sacco found work as a shoemaker, and...