A false charge is when a person is judged guilty in court for a crime he or she did not commit. People have been dealing with this issue for a long time. In many cases, people’s prejudices cause false charges. Sacco and Vanzetti’s case is one of the most famous cases of false charges caused by prejudices.
Sacco and Vanzetti had worked for more than 10 years in the US as immigrants. In 1920, the two immigrants’ lives changed. They were arrested for robbery and murder that happened in South Braintree. After that, they were accused of another affair that happened in Bridgewater in the past. There were 16 witnesses that could prove Sacco was not related to the affair. And Vanzetti was able to prove that he was at work when the affair happened. In spite of this, the death sentence was handed down to them.
Why did this happen? To put it briefly, it happened because of people’s prejudices. First, Sacco and Vanzetti were immigrants. When they moved to the US from Italy, the economy and businesses were not steady in the US. There were a lot of people who needed jobs. Majority of Americans believed that there were only a few available jobs because most jobs were already taken by immigrants. This is why most Americans were against immigration. Secondly, people had a prejudice about the two men’s political beliefs. Sacco and Vanzetti supported anarchism. Those days, the US government considered anarchism dangerous, so they closely paid attention to the two immigrants.