The most interesting thing about S and V as symbols is that their actual guilt or innocence is, and has always been irrelevant. We'll probably never know, but there's some reasonable evidence that Sacco, but probably not Vanzetti, was indeed guilty of the South Braintree murders.

Of course, this doesn't justify the way they were treated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

But when they became political symbols, their guilt or innocence became a matter of faith, rather than something that a "fair trial" could resolve.

There's a very revealing scene in Katherine Anne Porter's memoir of her days as a young woman participating in the daily demonstrations in support of Sacco and Vanzetti in Boston. At one point, she tells the leader of the demonstrations that she still hoped that the lives of the two Italians might be saved, and that they would receive another trial. The reply was, "Saved? Who wants them saved? What earthly good would they do us alive?"