The debate over Mumia Abu-Jamal has got me thinking of the Rosenbergs...

[DroppinScience]

Well, it may be too late to "free" them since they're already tried and executed, but is anyone here familiar with the Julian and Ethel Rosenberg's story? The husband-wife team who got convicted for passing on secrets to the USSR in the '50s.

What's troubling about it is that the evidence they were convicted on is highly suspect. Not only that, it's now pretty much established that Ethel Roseberg was innocent (Julian may or may not have actually done it) and had nothing to do with it, so they executed at LEAST one innocent person to prove a political point.

(n)

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/rosenb/ROSENB.HTM

Discuss.

[RobMoney$]

I.
give.
up.

[Documad]

I used to know a lot about it but I quit reading books on them and the cold war quite some time ago. I concluded that they were guilty but that they should not have been executed. The execution part was purely political and designed to get them to confess. I think the government types were surprised that they never did confess. (Apparently the fall of the USSR has revealed additional information that incriminated them and Alger Hiss but I'm not really up on that stuff.)

Their granddaughter made a fairly interesting documentary a few years ago. It's not for everyone because it's limited in scope and so you probably need to have a strong interest in them already. It was interesting to see how difficult it is to find their graves.

The most fascinating part of the story for me was always how Ethel's brother was also guilty and he ratted her out to save himself. You have to wonder how he could live with that.

(By the way, The Rosenberg File is a pretty good book as I recall. I also read The Brother a few years ago when that came out. Again, that one deals with David's story so it was interesting on that level.)

[DroppinScience]

Thanks for the insight, Documad.

One thing that strikes me as wrong about the case: even if they were guilty, why leave their children orphaned like that? At least commute their sentence to life.