Judgment and Mercy: The Turbulent Life and Times of the Judge Who Condemned the Rosenbergs

Martin J. Siegel's Judgment and Mercy is a biography of Irving Robert Kaufman, the judge who condemned Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to death for atomic espionage. Siegel shows how Kaufman's decisions desegregated a Northern school, liberalized the insanity defense, reformed Attica-era prisons, spared John Lennon from deportation, expanded free speech, brought foreign torturers to justice, and more. However, the Rosenberg controversy lingered, and tragedy stalked his family.

Format: Hardback
Length: 448 pages
Publication date: 03 April 2023
Publisher: Cornell University Press

In Judgment and Mercy, Martin J. Siegel presents an insightful and captivating biography of Irving Robert Kaufman, the judge renowned for sentencing Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to death for atomic espionage. In 1951, Kaufman's courtroom drew global attention as its young occupant boldly accused the Rosenbergs of causing the Korean War. Many viewed the harsh sentences and their self-serving author as a lasting blemish on American justice. However, the judge from the Cold War's central casting transformed into something unexpected: one of the most celebrated progressive jurists of his era.

Upending the simplistic portrayal of Judge Kaufman as a McCarthyite villain, Siegel unveils how his groundbreaking decisions desegregated a Northern school for the first time, liberalized the insanity defense, reformed Attica-era prisons, spared John Lennon from politically motivated deportation, expanded free speech, brought foreign torturers to justice, and more. Nevertheless, the Rosenberg controversy lingered. Decades later, changing times and revelations of judicial misconduct placed Kaufman under siege. Picketers followed his footsteps, as critics demanded impeachment. Tragedy also stalked his family, attributed in part to the prolonged ordeal. Instead of propelling him to the Supreme Court, as Kaufman once hoped, the case haunted him until the end.

Told with absorbing detail, Judgment and Mercy brings to life a complex man who vacillates between tyranny and warmth, paranoia and altruism, while shedding light on internal Jewish conflicts over assimilation, class, and patriotism. Siegel, who served as Kaufman's final law clerk, traces the evolution of American law and politics in the twentieth century and demonstrates how a judge unabashedly shaped the course of history.

Weight: 57g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 33 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501768521