Raymond L. Wise

Raymond L. Wise was a 20th-century attorney and member of the board of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He served as attorney for William Perl, a friend of Julius Rosenberg and thus part of the Rosenberg Case on Soviet atomic espionage.

Background

Wise was born in 1895 or 1896 in New York City. In 1916, he obtained a bachelor's degree from (then) Columbia College (now Columbia University) in 1916. In 1919, he obtained a law degree from Columbia University Law School.

Wise was a member of the committee on professional ethics of the Florida bar from 1964 to 1968 and chairman of the committee on professional ethics of the Dade County Bar Association from 1962 to 1966. Perl appeared before the Rosenberg Grand Jury in the summer of 1950, denying any relationship to the Rosenberg spy ring. On March 10, 1951, Wise and Perl met with FBI agents; Wise stated that Perl had paid him a "substantial fee" as retainer. On March 15, 1951, Perl was arrested. In April 1951, FBI advised Wise that they would make no deal with Perl over a plea of perjury. The Government delayed the trial in September 1951 due to Wise's illness. In December 1952, Wise asked for another deferral, as he would be in Florida for the winter; the judge decided to keep to resumption in February 1953. In March 1953, Wise again asked for deferral until after Wise's return from Florida on April 21, 1953, stating that Perl would otherwise ask for adjournment. On March 26, 1953, the Government agreed to resume on May 4, 1953. After his return in late April 1953, Wise "stated in strict confidence that he felt Perl should pleasd guilty and cooperate with Government in giving espionage into." By early May 1953, Wise reported that Perl remained unwilling to cooperate. On May 4, 1953, U.S. Judge Thomas Francis Murphy (government prosecutor in the Hiss Case) referred trial for instant case of perjury to Judge Sylvester J. Ryan of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, to commence on May 19, 1953, with Lloyd McMahon and Robert Martin prosecuting and Raymond L. Wise and Stanley Kanavek defending.

Trial In court, the Government argued that Perl had knowingly lied that he knew Julius Rosenberg and Morton Sobell when they were all members of the Young Communists League or that he knew Helene Elitcher, Michael Sidorovich, or Anne Sidorvich. Wise argued that Perl did not lie intentionally. Perl could not explain how or whether Vivian Glassman had given him paper with Rosenberg's name on it because Perl had destroyed the paper. He could not explain why Sobell had used him as a job reference. Wise then argued that, earlier, Perl had appeared voluntarily when answering, not as a defendant and not under oath. On May 26, 1953, in his summation, Wise argued that Perl believed his answers true at the time he was answering. For instance, he answered truthfully that he did not "know" Sobell, as in "intimately," not whether he ever knew him at all. As for evidence from Helene Ellitcher, Wise argued that the court could only expect her to corroborate the testimony of her husband, Max Elitcher, a communist and known perjurer. Perl had no motive to perjure himself; Wise asked for acquittal on all four perjury charges. On May 22, 1953, Perl was found guilty on two counts of perjury for lying about his "acquaintance and association" with Rosenberg and Sobell (and acquitted of two other counts). Perl served two concurrent five-year sentences at the New York House of Detention.

Personal life and death

Wise married Nadine Trope; they had two sons.

Articles "We Still Need a Bill of Rights," The Nation (1939) "The Mundt-Nixon Bill: Unconstitutionality of Pending Legislation is Charged," The New York Times (1948) "On World Disarmament," ABA Journal (1971) "Nixon Pardon," ABA Journal (1978)

Books

Legal Ethics (1966) Order Please (1970)