Library to host talk on the Sacco and Vanzetti case, MA judicial system flaws

In the early 1920s, two immigrants from Italy, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were accused of robbing a payroll and causing the deaths of two people in Braintree, Massachusetts. After a few hours’ deliberation, the jury convicted Sacco and Vanzetti of first-degree murder and they were sentenced to death by the trial in a case that gained worldwide attention. Despite attempts to secure a new trial and pleas for clemency, they were executed on August 23, 1927.

The Friends of the Public Library cordially invite the community to attend “The Sacco and Vanzetti Case: An Enduring Lesson” presented by Attorney Thomas J. Carey, Jr. This enlightening event will take place at the public library on September 13, 2023.

This event explores the enduring significance of the Sacco and Vanzetti case, considered a blot on the reputation of our judicial system. The John Adams Courthouse in Boston, home of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, has an exhibit in its Great Hall devoted to the lack of a fair trial in the case. The exhibit is designed to show the “importance of our striving always to be, in the enduring and inspiring words of the Massachusetts Constitution, a government of laws and not of men.’ ”

On August 23, 1977, marking the 50th anniversary of the executions, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation acknowledging that Sacco and Vanzetti had endured an unjust trial and conviction, and he declared that “any disgrace should be forever removed from their names”.

The organizers posed several thought-provoking questions in the event’s description: “What lessons can we learn from looking back at the Sacco-Vanzetti case nearly a century later? Was it unique to its own era, or could something similar happen again today? Have societal conditions that contributed to the unfairness of the trial disappeared? Have flaws in the judicial system been corrected? Should further improvements be made?”

Speaker Attorney Thomas J. Carey, Jr. is a member of the Massachusetts Bar and a former prosecutor specializing in handling appeals. He teaches at Boston College Law School and has often spoken at Bar Association and Continuing Education programs. A longtime Hingham resident, he is a trustee of the Hingham Public Library and a member of the Hingham Historical Society. He has an AB in Government from Boston College, a JD from its law school, an LLM from Harvard Law, and a lifelong love of Law and History.

The event will occur at the meeting room A, Shrewsbury Public Library (609 Main Street, Shrewsbury, MA, 01545) on Wednesday, September 13, 2023, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.

For more information, the following contact information is provided: 508-841-8531. Michael Zeller, [email protected].