I wrote a book on the execution of the Rosenbergs for Cold War spying – and a recently declassified document has convinced me that Ethel was innocent

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Lori Clune, California State University, Fresno

(THE CONVERSATION) The sons of an American woman executed for spying on the United States during the Cold War want President Joe Biden to clear her name before he leaves office.

Ethel Rosenberg and her husband, Julius, were executed on June 19, 1953, for conspiracy to commit espionage. They were accused of giving “the secret” of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union, meaning they supposedly passed vital technological information to help the Soviets develop their own bomb.

As the author of a book on the Rosenberg case, I know that there was no “secret,” and that while Julius was a spy, Ethel was not.

Yet generations of Americans have learned that the Rosenbergs – both of them – betrayed their country. If now, 75 years later, we know that an innocent woman was killed, how can the government rectify this?

A miscarriage of justice that orphaned two boys

In 2015, Rosenberg sons Michael and Robert Meeropol – they took the last name of the couple who adopted them after their...