The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti: A Critical Analysis for Lawyers and Laymen

by Felix Frankfurter

The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti. 1961 softcover.

Genres: Law, Politics, True Crime, History

118 pages, Hardcover

Published November 28, 2003

Reviews

[Thomas Romano · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an Italian in the US this story this story touched me personally. It is sobering to see that the country that is hosting me today, once had such blatant prejudices against my own compatriots as to reach the upper echelons of the judicial system.
It is also reassuring to know that intellectuals like Frankfurter had the courage to criticise this system and call it out for what it is. All the while, he recognises that what the US should strive for is a higher set of values.
This gives me hope that other courageous jurors will uphold the checks and balances that ensure the American democracy in these trying times.

[Zalman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long before Felix Frankfurter became a Justice of the US Supreme Court (1939-1962), he was active in a variety of Liberal causes (although later as a Justice he was an outspoken advocate of judicial restraint), including efforts to save the lives of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. In this book, published just 6 months before their execution in 1927, Frankfurter dissected the case in great detail, arguing that the two men were, if not unambiguously innocent, at the very least entitled to a retrial based on ignored evidence, the prejudicial circumstances of their original trial, and the transparent bias of the presiding Judge, Webster Thayer. The Sacco and Vanzetti case was one of the most controversial cases in US judicial history, and Frankfurter's study is a classic work of lucid analysis. As Frankfurter wrote in his Prefatory Note, "This is no ordinary case of robbery and murder. More issues are involved in it than the lives of two men." And yet, he asserted, "[t]here are no legal mysteries about the case which a layman cannot penetrate. The issues that are involved and the considerations relevant to their solution are within the comprehension of anyone who feels responsible for understanding them." (Not that Frankfurter's analysis hasn't been challenged, but that he still believed in his original arguments many years later was affirmed by his Note on Republication written for the January 1962 Universal Library Edition of the book.) Anyone with a real interest in US history should be familiar with this case, and although this particular book is not an "entertaining" account, it presents an important perspective on it.

[Caleb Benadum · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not fiction, although it seems too strange to be real. Felix Frankfurter published this well-written and well-argued expose of the tragic case of Sacco and Vanzetti less than a decade after their trial, yet while they were still waiting for the executioner's block. A travesty of justice, two Italian immigrants were tried before a conservative and anti-immigrant New England jury, before a judge who showed clear and unapologetic bias, in a trial that focused more on their socialist beliefs and labor-organizing activities then the crime that they were alleged to commit. Convicted on the identification testimony of unreliable witnesses against the testimony of many others denying the supposed identification, they were executed shortly after this article, and then book, was published. This book is worth a read for any that feel something like this could never have happened in the USA.

[Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across an ancient copy at my local library and finished reading it in one sitting. The work is concise, focused, and engaging; a great example of legal advocacy in accessible language. Justice Frankfurter evokes a rage against injustice that transcends time that will leave you convinced of Sacco and Vanzetti's innocence or deprivation of due process. While the book will not delve beyond the superficial facts of an important - and nearly forgotten - case, it is an excellent primer for those looking for a place to begin their scholarship.