Q. 1. Why do you think Sacco and Vanzetti were innocent?
A. All of the research that has been done since they were executed-- and there has been a lot of it-- demonstrates clearly
that Vanzetti was innocent. At the time of the crime he was peddling fish in Plymouth, and there were numerous witnesses to
prove it. The evidence with respect to Sacco is more ambiguous, but it certainly wasn't enough to convict him beyond a reasonable
doubt. A member of the mob subsequently revealed years after their execution that the killing was actually done by the Morelli
gang operating out of Rhode Island.
Q. 2. Do you think their trial was fair? Why or why not?
A. See my answer to question one. In the proclamation that I issued in 1977, I called their conviction a travesty of justice
not only because one of them was clearly innocent and the other probably so but because under current procedural rules there
is no way that they would have been convicted on the evidence presented to the jury. The judge was clearly biased. In fact,
he told somebody after the trial: " Did you see what I did to those Communist bastards?"
Q. What was the significance of this case?
A. One of the most significant aspects of the case was the obvious anti-immigrant prejudice that it reflected. At that
time Italian-Americans were an ethnic group that had recently arrived in the U.S., and there was a good deal of prejudice
against them. As you can see from what is happening today, anti-immigrant sentiment is not dead.
