Rosenberg Kids "Don't have any reason to doubt Morty"

In the opening of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, the narrative voice of Esther Greenwood notes that "It was the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs." The NY Times recently looked back to that summer, in light of Morton Sobell confessing last week he and Julius Rosenberg were in the spy game. Julius and Ethel's sons, Robert and Michael, say they have no reason to doubt "Morty." The Times adds "whatever atomic bomb information their father passed to the Russians was, at best, superfluous; the case was riddled with prosecutorial and judicial misconduct; their mother was convicted on flimsy evidence to place leverage on her husband; and neither deserved the death penalty."

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By Jen Carlson in News on September 17, 2008 5:51 PM

Comments [rss]

Stacy Horn

I feel for their sons. I was particularly touched by this comment, the last one in the piece, when asked about the fact that his parents essentially lied to them when they said they were innocent.

“What Julius was asked to do was send his best friends to jail, and he could not do that. My parents would have to have made a bigger betrayal to avoid betraying me, and frankly I don’t consider myself that important.”

Pull My Finger

The Rosenbergs are heroes to the left in this country.

ANGRYGOD11

I feel sorry for these 2 sons. They were lied to all their lives by people with the best of intentions. This included their own father, who by lying about his actions and guilt dragged his wife/their mother to the execution chamber.

The Edge

#3- Nobody deserves the death penalty?

Nobody?? Are you fucking shitting me?

rasputinsghost

Great, we should kill everyone who supported Stalin in one way or another. That wouldn't make us mass murderers or anything.

Mr Mel

Nobody deserves the death penalty. It's cruel and inhuman punishment. Sobel's testimony says that Julius Rosenberg was a spy but his wife wasn't. The worst punishment is still life without parole. I can't imagine growing old alone, that's real punishment, knowing you'll never get out.

jchez

People concentrate too much on the Rosenbergs. Instead think of who their boss was, a man they much admired and were perfectly happy to see getting the Atom Bomb. Freaking Mass Murderer (~20 million!) Josef Stalin!!!

That to me says everything about why the Rosenbergs deserved death.