A 98-year-old woman lost her bid to persuade a judge to erase her 1950 conviction for conspiracy to obstruct justice in the atomic spying trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Miriam Moskowitz, of New Jersey, served two years in jail for lying to a grand jury as it investigated the Rosenbergs, who were convicted of passing nuclear weapons secrets to the Soviet Union. On Thursday, 61 years after the Rosenbergs were executed, U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein rejected Moskowitz's unusual request to clear her name. Immediately after hearing oral arguments, he said her lawyers could not show that transcripts of grand jury statements by the lone witness against her would have changed her trial's result.
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Miriam Moskowitz, 98, served 2 years in prison for obstruction of justice
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She was convicted in 1950 of lying to a grand jury investigating the atomic spying plot by Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed in 1953
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A judge said claims that her original defense team were deprived of court documents did not prove her innocence
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Moskwitz said she is disappointed and blamed McCarthy-era prejudice
@placeholder, an actress, singer and secretary, was 37 when she died.