Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are Executed - 1953

Jun 19, 2013 - by Michael Thomas Barry - 0 Comments


Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

by Michael Thomas Barry

On June 19, 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. They had both been convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets. Both had also refused to admit any wrongdoing and proclaimed their innocence right up to the time of their deaths in the electric chair. The Rosenberg’s were the first U.S. citizens to be convicted and executed for espionage during peacetime and their case remains controversial to this day.


The Rosenberg’s vigorously protested their innocence, but after a brief trial that began on March 6, 1951, and attracted much media attention, the couple was convicted. On April 5, 1951, a judge sentenced them to death and the pair was taken to Sing Sing to await execution. During the next two years, the couple became the subject of both national and international debate. Some people believed that the Rosenberg’s were the victims of a surge of hysterical anti-communist feeling in the United States, and protested that the death sentence handed down was cruel and unusual punishment. Many Americans, however, believed that the Rosenberg’s had been dealt with justly. They agreed with President Dwight D. Eisenhower when he issued a statement declining to invoke executive clemency for the pair. He stated, "I can only say that, by immeasurably increasing the chances of atomic war, the Rosenberg’s may have condemned to death tens of millions of innocent people all over the world. The execution of two human beings is a grave matter. But even graver is the thought of the millions of dead whose deaths may be directly attributable to what these spies have done."



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