Question

We were tried during a time when there was ... resentment and hate against the foreigner, and it seems to me I am positive, that you [have] done all ... [that was] in your power in

order to agitate, still more the passion of the jurors, the prejudice of the jurors, against us. But my conviction is that I have suffered not for things that I am guilty of. I am
suffering because I am a radical and indeed I am a radical; I have suffered because I was an Italian and indeed I am Italian; I have suffered more for my family than for myself....
Bartolomeo Vanzetti, to the Judge on being sentenced to death, Sacco-Vanzetti case, 1927
According to Vanzetti, why was he found guilty at his trial?
a. He violated the Eighteenth Amendment, calling for Prohibition.
b. He was convicted because he was an immigrant with radical views.
c. He was the victim of a scandal from the Harding administration.
d. He had strongly supported eugenic laws.

Answer 1

Bartolomeo Vanzetti believed he was found guilty due to being an immigrant with radical views during a period of strong nativist sentiment, rather than concrete evidence of his crimes.

Step-by-step explanation:

According to Bartolomeo Vanzetti, he was found guilty at his trial because he was an immigrant with radical views, and not because of evidence linking him to the crime. Vanzetti, along with Nicola Sacco, faced strong nativist sentiment during a time of heightened fear and anxiety over immigration and radicalism in America. Their trial became a symbol of the Red Scare that swept through America in the 1920s, focusing more on their political beliefs and ethnic background rather than the actual evidence against them. The men were associated with anarchist views, and this influenced their unfair trial and eventual execution, despite worldwide protests and serious doubts cast upon their guilt.