1898-1968
Defense Attorney

Italian lawyer.

In 1926 Michael Angelo Musmanno was attempting to build a law practice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Despite an impressive record of advanced legal training abroad, most notably in Italy, he had not been able to find a position with any of the prestigious Pittsburgh law firms, which were "closed shops" when it came to hiring ethnic Americans, especially those of Italian, Irish, or Slavic descent. Most of Musmanno's clients came from the local Italian American community, and he was also developing a reputation around western Pennsylvania as a labor advocate. In autumn 1926 he accepted an offer to join the defense team preparing legal appeals for Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian-immigrant anarchists who had been found guilty and sentenced to death for two murders committed during an armed robbery.

Defending Sacco and Vanzetti.

Musmanno believed that nativist prejudice against ethnic...