Michael Musmanno

Who was Michael Musmanno?

Michael Angelo Musmanno was an American jurist, politician, and naval officer. For nearly two decades from the early 1930s, he served as a judge in courts of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Entering the United States Navy during World War II, he served in the military justice system. After the war in 1946 he served as a governor of an occupied district in Italy. Beginning in 1947, he served as a presiding judge for the Einsatzgruppen Trial in US military court at Nuremberg.

Musmanno returned to the United States and in 1951 was elected as a justice to the state Supreme Court in Pennsylvania, where he served from 1952 to his death in 1968. He set a record for the number of dissenting opinions filed. Considered "a complicated figure in Pittsburgh history", he was known for defending Sacco-Vanzetti, as well for anti-Communism and support for civil rights.

In addition to his long judicial career and postwar contributions in Europe, he wrote sixteen books and articles related to his cases and career. He also wrote to express his sympathy for working men and deep interest in the Italians in the United States.