![]() ![]() “Ethel’s guilt remains a question because of a lack of documentation, both in terms of proofs offered during and after her conviction in the U.S. In 2016, the Rosenberg’s sons asked President Barack Obama to pardon their mother. There has been continued doubt specifically about Ethel’s role in the spy scheme. “Needless to say, it was also a bit of pander to the increasingly vitriolic anti-communism of the period, mostly coming from Joseph McCarthy and his associates,” Kislenko says. Arne Kislenko, professor of history at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, sees the convictions as coded to a time when the United States wanted to look strong on Soviet aggression around the world, particularly during the Korean War. One reason for the lasting controversy about the case is due to the perceived harshness of the sentencing. Cold War paranoia influenced the proceedings. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg children, Michael, 10, and Robert, 6, reading the news about their parents in home of friends in Toms River, New Jersey. The Rosenbergs were executed by electric on June 19, 1953, at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. David Greenglass got a 15-year sentence, serving just over nine years. Edgar Hoover suggested a 30-year sentence for Ethel, believing she would eventually name names in jail.īut Judge Irving Kaufman chose death for both Rosenbergs. Sentencing guidelines gave the judge two choices for Julius and Ethel: 30 years imprisonment or execution. The Rosenbergs and Greenglass were all found guilty. Greenglass later told New York Times journalist Sam Roberts that he had entered into a deal with the government, implicating his sister in exchange for his wife’s immunity. The FBI hoped her arrest would force Julius to name names of other Communist sympathizers. Ethel was later arrested while leaving a federal courthouse in New York City after testifying she had no knowledge of espionage efforts. Soon after, the FBI raided the Rosenberg home and arrested Julius. WATCH NOW Ethel Rosenberg was arrested on the courthouse steps. ![]()
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