The Rosenberg Trial :: essays research papers

The Rosenberg trial, which ended in a double execution in 1953, was one of the century's most controversial trials. It was sometimes referred to as, "the best publicized spy hunt of all times" as it came to the public eye in the time of atom-spy hysteria. Husband and wife, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage. Most of the controversy surrounding this case came from mass speculation that there were influences being reinforced by behind-the-scenes pressure, mainly from the government, which was detected through much inconsistencies in testimonies and other misconduct in the court. Many shared the belief that Ethel Rosenberg expressed best as she wrote in one of her last letters before being executed, "-knowing my husband and I must be vindicated by history...We are the first victims of American Fascism." Some people believed that the Rosenbergs had a vulnerable background which made these innocent people fall victim to the government. In September 1940 Julius Rosenberg was hired by US army Signal Corps as a junior engineer, but fired March 1945 because he was found to be a member of the communist party. He was employed in 1945 with Emerson Radio. Finally, in 1946 Bernard Greenglass, his brother-in-law, asked him to a join war surplus business called Pitt Machine Products Company. Ethel Rosenberg supported herself as a teenager through pageant prize money she won as a singer and dancer. Later on she was employed as a clerk for National Shipping but lost her job for union activities. They lived a happily married life with two sons until June 15, 1950 when brother-in-law, David Greenglass named Julius and Ethel as people who recruited him to spy for the Soviet Union. The case judged by Irving R. Kaufman began on March 6,1957. The Rosenbergs, as well as Morton Sobell, were accused of delivering information, documents, sketches and other material vital to the national defense of our country, to a foreign power, namely, to Soviet Russia. Greenglass testified that it was he who turned over most of these materials to the Rosenbergs because of pressure. On March 29, after a much publicized court case, the couple were found guilty and sentenced to be executed in the week of May 21, and their accused co-conspirator, Sobell, got 30 years in jail because he was not explicitly connected to the atom bomb. Many people were against this decision and the president tried to justify such rash actions: "The execution of two human beings is a grave matter. But even graver is the thought of the millions of dead whose death may be directly attributable to what these spies have done." After many failed appeals, Julius and Ethel were electrocuted minutes apart on June 19,