Tsarnaev case may revive issue of execution in Massachusetts
by Steve Leblanc, Portland Press Herald, April 12, 2015
Perhaps the most infamous Massachusetts death penalty case of the 20th century focused on Italian immigrants and committed anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. The two were arrested several weeks after a payroll clerk and a security guard were shot and killed during an armed robbery at a Braintree shoe factory. The 1921 trial drew international attention. After they were convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair, political dissidents, unionists, Italian immigrants and other supporters – including poet Edna St. Vincent Millay – demonstrated across the United States and Europe arguing the two were targeted for their political beliefs and immigrant status.
