The Nation: History on Trial

The Sacco and Vanzetti case stands —in the opinion of some—as a landmark in U.S. legal history, showing just how far justice can go off the track. According to that view, the two Italian anarchists were convicted and executed for a 1920 holdup-murder on conflicting and circumstantial evidence. The National Park Service seems to agree. In a recent letter to the Norfolk, Mass., county commission, the service suggested that the granite Greek-revival courthouse in which the case was tried should be made into a national landmark. Displaying a touch of radical chic, the Park Service argued that the Sacco and...