Since the chief purpose of the writer is to expose to the scrutiny of the public the principal evidence upon which the defendants were convicted of murder, events since the conviction have not had their proper share of attention.
With the confession of a young Portuguese, Celestino F. Madeiros, himself convicted of murder, who swore that he had been one of the hold-up men, and that Sacco and Vanzetti had not participated in the hold-up, as a starting point, the defense has built up a strong case for the identification of a gang of professional bandits in Rhode Island as the murderers of Parmenter and Berardelli.
In October, 1926, Judge Thayer, in an opinion of 25,000 words, a mass of misquotations, misrepresentations, suppressions and mutilations, denied a motion for a new trial, based on the confession of Madeiros and subsequent evidence.
A few weeks ago the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts barred further appeal in the Massachusetts courts. It did not, however, itself pass on the worth of the new evidence.
On April 9th, Judge Thayer sentenced Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti to die in the electric chair in the week of July 10, 1927.
Power now rests in the hands of the Hon. Alvin T. Fuller, Governor of Massachusetts, to commute their sentence to life imprisonment, or grant a pardon.
SHALL SACCO AND VANZETTI BE KILLED IN THE ELECTRIC CHAIR OR, THEIR SENTENCE COMMUTED TO IMPRISONMENT FOR LIFE, PERISH IN PRISON, ON A CONVICTION SECURED AT A MANIFESTLY UNJUST TRIAL?
NO! GOVERNOR FULLER MUST SET THEM FREE!