U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Carmen Ortiz, lead prosecutor in the government’s case against influential programmer and Internet activist Aaron Swartz, on Wednesday evening released her first statement since Swartz’s death and since dropping all charges against him. Swartz, who committed suicide at age 26 and was found dead January 11, was in 2011 charged with 13 felony counts including computer fraud and wire fraud after downloading 4.8 million scholarly articles from online subscription catalog JSTOR between late 2010 and early 2011, using a jury-rigged computer plugged into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s campus network.
Ortiz’s statement is conciliatory but also attempts to deflect the growing chorus of accusations by friends of Swartz and others that the prosecution was overzealous and may have pushed Swartz, who was by his own admission struggling with depression, to the brink. Read it in full below:
BOSTON – As a parent and a sister, I can only imagine the pain felt by the family and friends of Aaron Swartz, and I want to extend my heartfelt sympathy to everyone who knew and loved this young man. I know that there is little I can say to abate the anger felt by those who believe that this office’s prosecution of Mr. Swartz was unwarranted and somehow led to the tragic result of him taking his own life.
I must, however, make clear that this office’s conduct was appropriate in bringing and handling this case. The career prosecutors handling this matter took on the difficult task of enforcing a law they had taken an oath to uphold, and did so reasonably. The prosecutors recognized that there was no evidence against Mr. Swartz indicating that he committed his acts for personal financial gain, and they recognized that his conduct – while a violation of the law – did not warrant the severe punishments authorized by Congress and called for by the Sentencing Guidelines in appropriate cases. That is why in the discussions with his counsel about a resolution of the case this office sought an appropriate sentence that matched the alleged conduct – a sentence that we would recommend to the judge of six months in a low security setting. While at the same time, his defense counsel would have been free to recommend a sentence of probation. Ultimately, any sentence imposed would have been up to the judge. At no time did this office ever seek – or ever tell Mr. Swartz’s attorneys that it intended to seek – maximum penalties under the law.
As federal prosecutors, our mission includes protecting the use of computers and the Internet by enforcing the law as fairly and responsibly as possible. We strive to do our best to fulfill this mission every day.
(H/T: Mashable.)
