Judgment and Mercy

2023 National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize Finalist In Judgment and Mercy , Martin J. Siegel examines the complex life and career of Irving Kaufman, the judge infamous for sentencing Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to death for atomic espionage in 1951. While many saw the Rosenberg affair as a McCarthyite stain on American justice, Kaufman later became a leading progressive, issuing key rulings on school desegregation, prison reform, and free speech. Yet the Rosenberg case haunted him. Deca