Andy Irvine also wrote a good song about Sacco and Vanzetti, called "Facing the Chair". It's on Patrick Street's first album. The contention is that Judge Webster Thayer wanted to make an example of them as part of his political aspirations - in his viewpoint, they were Communists/anarchists and so deserved to die whether they were guilty of murder or not...truly a miscarriage of justice.

On NPR this morning, they had a feature about lesser-known events of the past century. One listener suggested the Sacco and Vanzetti case, saying that an informal poll showed it to be an age-dividing event. All the people who had heard of the case were 40+ years old; no-one younger seemed to know who they were...