Ethel Rosenberg

On September 11, 2008, Morton Sobell, convicted co-conspirator of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, confessed to his guilt in the 1950s atomic secrets espionage case, after 50 years of proclaiming his innocence. His admission came as the National Archives released papers relating to the Rosenberg case. Taken together, Sobell and the newly released documents absolve Ethel Rosenberg of any serious wrongdoing.The New York Times: Figure in Rosenberg Case Admits... (September 11, 2008)

Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg was a 35-year-old housewife when she was arrested in 1951 and charged with espionage. She and her husband Julius Rosenberg were accused of passing information to the Soviet Union about atomic weapons. Ethel's brother David Greenglass stole documents from the Los Alamos National Laboratory where he worked; Julius Rosenberg delivered them to the Soviet Union. Those notes may have assisted the Soviets in developing their own nuclear weapons. Greenglass and his wife Ruth testified against Ethel, claiming she typed the notes that were transmitted to the Soviet Union. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were found guilty and both were executed by electric chair on June 19, 1953.

The evidence in the documents released by the National Archives on September 11, 2008 indicates that the notes supposedly typed by Ethel Rosenberg were given to the Soviet Union in long hand, and that they were written out by Ruth Greenglass. Further, the notes indicate that the typing story was invented by prosecutors, in a failed attempt to force Julius Rosenberg to confess in order to save his wife.The New York Times: Figure in Rosenberg Case Admits... (September 11, 2008)