Letter, Herbert Brownell to the President In the Matter of the Commutation of Sentence for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

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A Go I ffitce of the Attorney General * * IN THE MATTER OF THE COMMUTATION OF SENTENCES as JULIUS ROSENBERG AND ETHEL ROSENBERG The President a Sir: These petitioners were convicted in the United States Dis- trict Court for the Southern District of New York on an indictment charging them with conspiring with David Greengless, Anatoli Yakov- lev, and Morton Sobell to communicate to the Union of Soviet Social- ist Republics documents, writings, sketches, notes and information relating to the national defense of the United States, with intent and reason to believe that it would be used to the advantage of the Soviet Union. Ruth Greenglass, wife of David, and one Harry Cold were named in the indictment es conspirators but not as defendants. * The petitioners on April 5. 1951, were sentenced to death. The execution of sentence has been deferred from time to time pend- ing appellate proceedings, and the order of the District Court now * Gold pleaded guilty on July 20, 1950, to an indictment in substan- tially the seme terms and vas sentenced by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, et Philadelphie, to a term of thirty years, the maximum term of imprisonment imposable under the statute. Yekovlev, an official employee of the Soviet Consulate General in New York, left the United Stetes end wes not placed on trial. Devid Greengless testified for the Government and wes sentenced for fifteen years. Futh Greenglass has not been pros- ecuted. Sobellwas sentenced to thirty years.