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MOST CONTROVERSIAL INNOCENCE CASES OF PRISONERS EXECUTED IN THE USA

PART 1 - The Sacco and Vanzetti case



Ferdinando Nicola Sacco (April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian-bornanarchists  who were convicted of murdering two men during the armed robbery of a shoe factoryin South Braintree, Massachussets, United States in 1920.

As Italian immigrants and anarchists, both adhered to a movement that advocated relentless warfare against a violent and oppressive government.

A controversial trial in 1921 resulted in the men's conviction, despite equivocal ballistics  evidence and numerous witnesses who claimed Sacco had been in Boston's North End and Vanzetti in Plymouth, Massachusetts on the day of the robbery. To explain why they had been found armed when arrested, both defendants had to recount their anarchist beliefs in court, leading to suspicions that this may have prejudiced the jury.

After a few hours' deliberation, the jury found Sacco and Vanzetti guilty of first-degree murder on July 14, 1921. A series of appeals followed, funded largely by a private Sacco and Vanzetti Defense Committee. The appeals were based on recanted testimony, conflicting ballistics evidence, a prejudicial pre-trial statement by the jury foreman, and a confession by an alleged participant in the robbery. All appeals were denied by the original trial judge and eventually by the Massachusetts State Supreme Court. By 1925, the case had drawn worldwide attention. As details of the trial and the men's suspected innocence became known, Sacco and Vanzetti became the center of the largest cause celebre  in modern history. In 1927, protests in their behalf were held in every major capital in the Western World, as well as Tokyo, Sydney, and Johannesburg. 

Celebrated writers, artists, and academics pleaded for their pardon or at least for a new trial. Harvard law professor and future Supreme Court justiceFelix Frankfurter argued for their innocence in a widely read Atlanti Monthly article that was later published in book form. Sacco and Vanzetti were sentenced to death in April 1927, accelerating the outcry.Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in the electric chair on August 23, 1927
.


More on the most controversial innocence cases in the history of the death penalty


Part II   -   Bruno Hauptmann

Part III   -  Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Part iV  -   Caryl Chessman


Part V   -   Since the nineties: Carlos del Luna, Cameron Todd Willingham, Troy Davies


Learn more about possible cases of wrongful convictions today


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                           Prisoners  USA
James Anderson (CAL)
David Carpenter (TX)
Kenneth Clair (CAL)
Kevin Cooper (CAL)
​Charles Flores (TX)
Jeffrey Havard (MS)

Elwood Jones (OH)
William Kuenzel (AL)
Rogers LaCaze (LA)
Charles Mamou (TX)
Gerald Marshall (TX)
James McWilliams (AL)
Willie Jerome Manning (MS)
Tony Medina (TX)
Rodney Reed (TX)
Darlie Routier (TX)
John Calvin Taylor (FL)
Rob Will (TX)

Clinton Lee Young (TX)
Keith Zon Doolin (CAL)
Others (USA)
Past cases
Children  MIDDLE EAST
140 juveniles on death row in Iran

(and  many more worldwide)

Women  CHINA & BEYOND
500 000 in prisons worldwide

Hundreds of  Migrant Workers



Innocents  AROUND THE WORLD
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