Executed for nothing

Ethel Rosenberg just a ‘pawn’ in spy case vs. hubby: report

THE U.S. government used convicted Soviet spy Ethel Rosenberg as a “pawn” in the case against her atomic-secret-stealing husband despite a lack of evidence, a new inquiry into the execution of the couple found.

The report by Seton Hall Law School analyzed piles of evidence in the case. Those documents included a July 1950 FBI memo in which investigators acknowledge they did not have enough evidence to warrant Ethel Rosenberg’s prosecution.

Nevertheless, the government continued turning up the heat on Rosenberg in an effort to build a case against her husband. Both, the parents of two young boys, were sent to the electric chair in 1953. Ethel Rosenberg was 37, her husband, Julius, 35.

“The reason for her prosecution seems clear: Ethel was executed because she refused to cooperate with the government to help convict her husband, Julius,” the 26-page report reads. “Ethel was merely a pawn used for leverage in the government’s attempt to build a case against Julius Rosenberg.”

Michael Meeropol, the elder of the Rosenbergs’ sons, emphasized the report was written by scholars at the New Jersey university who didn’t have a vested interest in where the documents led them.

“They are objective, not interested parties,” Meeropol, 73, said.

The report only backed up his long-held belief about the FBI using his mother against his father in the Cold War espionage case that mesmerized the country.

“They had arrested her to put pressure on my father,” he said.

The report also analyzed recently unsealed grand jury testimony by David Greenglass, a key witness against the couple.

Greenglass — himself a Soviet spy — was Ethel Rosenberg’s brother.

He testified at trial that she typed up her husband’s notes containing nuclear secrets — a key allegation in the case against her. But Greenglass’ testimony to the grand jury in 1950 did not contain that damning detail. Greenglass’ wife, Ruth, also never made that allegation until the trial was about to begin.

“Over the course of eight months, neither Ruth nor David Greenglass mentioned Ethel typing up the notes until two weeks before trial,” the report reads.

Meeropol and his brother, Robert, 69, earlier this month attempted to deliver a letter to the White House asking President Obama to clear their mother’s name.

The White House has not responded to the request.

“We remain hopeful,” said Meeropol, who was adopted and changed his last name following his parents’ executions.

Seton Hall Law School Prof. Mark Denbeaux said his threeyear investigation revealed the case against Ethel Rosenberg was “basically nonexistent at the outset.”

It is “clear that the government knew that there was no real evidence of espionage by Ethel, and yet she was sent to the electric chair,” Denbeaux said. “It was a hysterical time, but it’s still hard to accept that our government knowingly executed someone without any real evidence.”