The Massachusetts Council Against the Death Penalty, the only active state organization dedicated to abolition from 1928 through 1950, was founded in the aftermath of Sacco and Vanzetti's executions. The campaign was ultimately successful in 1984.

One week later, at the weary conclusion
of an all night session, Ehrmann watched from the gallery as
the House passed a similar bill. Speaker Thompson warned that a
112 Commonwealth v. Kerrigan, 188 N.E.2d 484, 484-85 (Mass. 1963); BoSTON GLOBE,
Sept. 14, 1961.
113 BOSTON GLOBE, Sept. 23, 1961.
114 BoSTON REc.-AM., Feb. 4, 1963. For Lawton's statement to Judiciary Committee, see
James Lawton Statement, March 21,1963, Box 18, Folder 88, Ehrmann Papers, supra note
9.
2002] Death Penalty Abolition in Massachusetts 327
celebration was premature; parliamentary procedure required the
House and Senate to take enactment votes. On Friday morning, May
4, Governor Peabody and Speaker Thompson convened a meeting of
abolitionists at the Parker House to map strategy and to count House
members for Monday's showdown vote. Because he was suffering from
a badly infected knee caused by wartime shrapnel, Thompson was
confined to a wheelchair. For that reason, he telephoned House
members rather than roam the House corridors in search of votes.
Governor Peabody used his influence as well, and publicly vowed "a
last-ditch fight" to enact a bill. At the same time, police officers
knocked on legislators' office doors, urging them to hold firm against
abolition. When the House vote was tabulated, the abolition bill lost
by twelve votes.1l5 Governor Endicott Peabody succeeded in