Julius And Ethel Rosenberg Research Paper

The trial and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg has been a controversial topic for decades. Whether debating the constitutionality of their capital punishment, or the ethics behind the trial, people all over the world are split over if they should have been condemned to death or to a prison cell. Both positions can be well supported, but I believe that the execution of the Rosenbergs was completely justified. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death by the electric chair on June 19, 1953 at Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York. They were tried and convicted of espionage and passing curtial information that aided the Soviet Union in the building of their atomic bomb. Both Julius and Ethel were known Communists, with Julius leading a spy ring of Communists and being discharged from the Army for lying about being Communist. The US Army started a secret program, called Venona, that intercepted 49 messages from Julius and Ethel to the Soviet Union, which were released to the public in 1995. When the trial first occurred, the evidence used to convict the Rosenbergs was unsubstantial and weak at best. The evidence given at the time could not provide solid proof that Julius had

They passed insider information to our enemy, the Soviet Union; they were traitors to their own country. Julius used his brother in law, David Greenglass, who worked on the Manhattan project for insider information about the building of the atomic bomb. The Espionage Act of 1917 provided stiff penalties, including the death penalty, for espionage and/or aiding the enemy. Julius and Ethel both were involved in the transition of information about the atomic bomb from the United States to the hands of the Soviets. In 1985 the Freedom of Information Act released and brought light to documents that proved both were involved in aiding the enemy and proved them