LAST EDITED ON 07-26-17 AT 00:37 AM (EST)According to Kremlin records revealed after the breakup of the Soviet Union, as well as information gleaned from interviews with the Russian spy handlers, Ethel did not participate in the spying (she didn't even have a Russian code name assigned to her) not even to the extent of typing up Greenglass or her husband's notes as was alleged by Greenglass. Julius on the other hand was active (as proven by the FBI investigations, the Russian intercepts, and Russian records reviewed after the USSR breakup) in setting up spy rings and recruiting spies.
What neither he nor his wife were guilty of was passing the vital secrets of the atom bomb to the Russians. That turned out to be a semi-separate Soviet penetration by spies, among them Klaus Fuchs, a physicist working on the Manhattan project. Greenglass was actually guilty of trying his damnest to obtain secrets to pass on to Julius, but as a low level machinist, he just didn't have that kind of access. But becasue they caught him and his wife trying to spy, they had leverage over him which Cohn used to get him to lie on the stand and testify against the Rosenbergs. So, Julius kinda got what he deserved, but Ethel was collateral damage caused mainly by Cohn. One has to suspect that she at least knew what was going on, though.
Greenglass escaped with a 15 year sentence.
So you are very right about Julius, he got what he deserved, albeit in a very crooked way by one of the most unethical lawyers in history, Roy Cohn, Donald Trump's lawyer.
I didn't get what I've learned from this article, but here is a Smithsonian site with a lot of the information.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/spies-who-spilled-atomic-bomb-secrets-127922660/
BTW, the major criticism I would have with McCarthy is not that rooting out spies is wrong, but what is wrong is a politiciam making assertions without facts that ruin a large number of people's lives, for no other apparent reason than to boost one's own political career. He may have actually exposed a spy or two, but the massive immoral, unethical, and probably illegal if it were to be pursued, collateral damage he and cohn caused could have hardly been worth it.
.