Prsentation PowerPoint

The Rosenberg Trial

As is the case with many famous trials, it is a story of betrayal, a love story, a spy story, a story of a family torn apart, and a story of government overreaching.

The chargesconspiracy to commit espionage

The type of trial: civil? criminal!

The defendantEmanuel BlochThe Rosenberg case would be Bloch's most infamous as well as his last. In early 1954 Bloch was found dead in his apartment, dead of a heart attack at age 52. According to his father, Emanuel Bloch was also a victim of the Rosenberg case.

The prosecutionThe lawyer :United States Attorney Irving SaypolHis main grounds: investigation by the FBI and testimonies of Gold and Greenglass.His pieces of evidence: circumstantial evidence (conflicting stories by Gold and Greenglass, vague sketches of the secrets passed by Julius to the Soviets); government secrecy with its own evidence.The sentence being asked: death penalty

The chain of spiesThe witnesses for the defenseThe witnesses : Julius and Ethel RosenbergMain arguments: both Rosenbergs pleaded the Fifth Amendment; testified as to their modest lifestyle, inconsistent with the rewards one would expect a world class spy to have received; mostly offered a long string of denials.The witnesses for the prosecutionMax ElitcherDavid Greenglass & Ruth GreenglassHarry GoldElizabeth Bentley, dubbed "The Red Spy Queen"Ben SchneiderThe chronology of the case On June 15, 1950, FBI officials questioned David Greenglass.In 1944, David had been assigned to work as a soldier-machinist in Los Alamos. Greenglass told the FBI that Rosenberg asked his wife, Ruth, to talk with him to see if he might be willing to provide descriptions of Manhattan Project research.

Shortly after 8 a.m. on June 16, 1950, FBI agents showed up at the apartment of Julius Rosenberg and asked that he accompany him for questioning.Two agents showed up on the evening of July 17, 1950 to clap handcuffs on Rosenberg in the view of both his sons.One month later, on August 11, Julius wife, Ethel, was also arrested, charged with assisting her husband with his illicit activities.

Things began to happen to several of Julius's acquaintances who shared his enthusiasm for leftist politics.March 6, 1951, the case of the United States v Julius Rosenberg, Ethel Rosenberg, and Morton Sobell was called for trial.Summations by both sides brought the month-long trial to its end, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty and executed shortly after 8 p.m. in Sing-Sing Prison on June 19, 1953.

The sentence given Calling their crime "worse than murder" and blaming them for 50,000 American deaths in Korea, Judge Irving Kaufman sentenced both Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to death in the electric chair.Morton Sobell received a thirty-year sentence.

THE ENDThank you for your attention!null28107.93