In 1964 Rosenberg was to be executed using the electric chair. Shortly before it was to take place, he was granted a stay of execution by Governor Nelson Rockefeller based on new laws that reduced the use of capital punishment in New York. Four years after Rosenberg's incarceration, he earned a law degree from the Blackstone Career Institute. Prior to Rosenberg, no inmate in the state of New York had ever earned a law degree. During the 1971 Attica Prison riot, Rosenberg provided legal advice to those leading the uprising. This included dramatically tearing in half a judge's order, as TV news cameras rolled, because he considered it a fake. In actuality, the authentic order had been procured as a bargaining chip—to protect Attica's inmates from future administrative reprisals if they would return to their cells. Rosenberg was shot in the knee and beaten during the riot. He acted as one of the negotiators for the prisoners before the insurrection ended with an all-out assault by police.