<img class="float_right" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/50f804d16bb3f75a6b000004-448/cameron-ortiz-1.png?maxX=400&amp;maxY=299" border="0" alt="Cameron Ortiz" width="400" height="299" />Last Friday, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/26-year-old-reddit-co-founder-aaron-swartz-has-died-2013-1">26-year-old Internet activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide.</a>
He had suffered depression for a long time, and he was in the middle of a stressful trial for illegally obtaining millions of documents in 2011.
Many of Swartz' family and friends feel the government was too harsh on Aaron, which drove him to his death. Swartz's father went so far as to say <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aaron-swartzs-father-says-his-son-was-killed-by-the-government-2013-1">his son was "killed by the government."</a>
The statement fired shots at <keyword id="460804" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Carmen-Ortiz">Carmen Ortiz</keyword> and Stephen Heymann, who were leading the charge on Swartz' prosecution.
This morning, Ortiz issued a statement:
As a parent and a sister, I can only imagine the pain felt by the family and friends of <keyword id="715627" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Aaron-Swartz">Aaron Swartz</keyword>, 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.

Carmen Ortiz, The Attorney Aaron Swartz' Father Indirectly Blamed For His Son's Death, Has Issued A Statement

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/50f6dd0fecad04235300000a-534/aaron-swartzcarmen-ortiz-2.jpg?maxX=400" border="0" alt="aaron swartz/carmen ortiz" width="400" /></div>Wikipedia/The United States Attorney's Office<keyword id="715627" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Aaron-Swartz">Aaron Swartz</keyword> and <keyword id="460804" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Carmen-Ortiz">Carmen Ortiz</keyword></div>On Friday evening, 26-year-old <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/26-year-old-reddit-co-founder-aaron-swartz-has-died-2013-1">Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz tragically died.</a>
Swartz, who also co-wrote RSS and was an Internet activist, hanged himself in his apartment. He had battled depression and was facing jail time after hacking into <keyword id="54274" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="MIT">MIT</keyword>'s servers and stealing millions of journal articles. 
His funeral was held on Tuesday, and his father told guests that his son had been <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/15/aaron-swartz-father-says-killed-by-government_n_2482646.html">"killed by the government,"</a> the AP reports.
"He was killed by the government, and MIT betrayed all of its basic principles," Mr. Swartz told the crowd.
The comment was directed at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tom-dolan-defends-carmen-ortiz-2013-1">U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz</a> and Stephen Heymann, who were leading the charge on Swartz's case. Many feel the pair tried to paint Swartz's action in the worst possible light and give him an unreasonable sentence. Swartz was potentially facing years in jail for stealing copies of papers; he caused no direct harm to anyone. 
Still, it's not fair to say that the government alone killed Aaron Swartz. While the stress of his trial may have significantly contributed to his suicidal thoughts, Swartz battled depression long before the U.S. prosecutors entered the picture.
Ortiz declined to comment about Swartz's remark to the AP.

Aaron Swartz's Father Says His Son Was 'Killed By The Government'

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/50f482266bb3f7164e000003-445/aaron-swartz-2.png?maxX=400&amp;maxY=300" border="0" alt="Aaron Swartz" width="400" height="300" /></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jewschool/6722393349/">Selfagency via Flickr</a><keyword id="715627" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Aaron-Swartz">Aaron Swartz</keyword> co-founded Demand Progress, an advocacy group.</div>People are outraged over the death of Aaron Swartz, the 26-year-old <keyword id="334157" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Reddit">Reddit</keyword> cofounder, at his own hands on Friday, a few months before he was scheduled to go to trial for the alleged theft of scholarly articles at the MIT campus.
And they're trying to do something about it.
A <a href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-states-district-attorney-carmen-ortiz-office-overreach-case-aaron-swartz/RQNrG1Ck">petition</a> calling for the removal of Swartz's prosecutor, U.S. District Attorney <keyword id="460804" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Carmen-Ortiz">Carmen Ortiz</keyword>, has already amassed over 16,500 signatures since it was created on Saturday.
It needs another 8,500 signatures before it hits a threshold which will prompt the White House, which created the petition site, to review the matter and respond.
UPDATE: By 4:30 pacific time, the petition had well over 19,000 signatures.
Although Swartz described his battles with depression, Swartz's family and friends said the behavior of the U.S. Attorney <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/statement-family-aaron-swartz-2013-1">contributed to his suicide</a>.
Swartz could have gone to prison for more than 30 years. Some copyright reform advocates, including noted Harvard professor Larry Lessig, said that <a href="http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/40347463044/prosecutor-as-bully">Swartz was a victim of prosecutorial "bullying,"</a>
There would be some poetic justice if this Internet petition spurs an investigation that leads to concrete action like Ortiz's dismissal. Swartz spent his life using the Internet to as a tool for social justice.
Here's <a href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-states-district-attorney-carmen-ortiz-office-overreach-case-aaron-swartz/RQNrG1Ck">the full text of the petition:</a>
Remove United States District Attorney Carmen Ortiz from office for overreach in the case of Aaron Swartz.
It is too late to do anything for Aaron Swartz, but [those] who used the powers granted to them by their office to hound him into a position where he was facing a ruinous trial, life in prison (sic) and the ignominy and shame of being a convicted felon; for an alleged crime that the supposed victims did not wish to prosecute.
A prosecutor who does not understand proportionality and who regularly uses the threat of unjust and overreaching charges to extort plea bargains from defendants regardless of their guilt is a danger to the life and liberty of anyone who might cross her path.

16,000 People Are Asking President Obama To Fire Aaron Swartz's Prosecutor

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:401px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/50f564c469bedd7f6100001e-534/aaron-swartzcarmen-ortiz.jpg?maxX=401&amp;maxY=300" border="0" alt="aaron swartz/carmen ortiz" width="401" height="300" /></div>Wikipedia/The United States Attorney's OfficeAaron Swartz and Carmen Ortiz</div>U.S. District Attorney Carmen Ortiz's husband has had enough of people attacking his wife.
Thousands of people have called on President Barack Obama <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/petition-carmen-ortiz-aaron-swartz-prosecutor-2013-1">to fire Ortiz after Reddit cofounder</a> Aaron Swartz killed himself last week.
Ortiz was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/statement-family-aaron-swartz-2013-1">heading up a criminal hacking case</a> against Swartz after he was accused of illegally downloading academic papers over Massachusetts Institute of Technology's network.
But her husband Tom Dolan, a former IBM CFO, is <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeednews/prosecutors-husband-defends-push-to-jail-internet">sick of people blaming</a> his wife for Swartz's death and is using Twitter to stress that Ortiz was actually being pretty lenient with Swartz, Buzzfeed reported Tuesday morning.
In a series of tweets posted Monday, Dolan attacked ThinkProgress for reporting Swartz "faced a <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/01/14/1441211/killers-slavers-and-bank-robbers-all-face-less-severe-prison-terms-than-aaron-swartz-did/">more severe prison term</a> than killers," telling the liberal news site its report was "<a href="https://twitter.com/tomjdolan">completely false.</a> Aaron Swartz was offered a plea deal of 6 months. 6 months is not 35 years."
Dolan also fired back against media critic Dan Gillmor for <a href="https://twitter.com/dangillmor">tweeting a Boston Globe article</a> that reported MIT refused to sign a plea deal for Swartz. "If true, just sickening," Gillmor added.
Dolan also criticized Swartz's family, saying it was "truly incredible that in their own son's obit they blame others for his death and make no mention of the 6-month offer."
In a statement about Swartz's death, his family and partner <a href="http://www.rememberaaronsw.com/">said the 26-year-old's death</a> was "the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach."
Check out Dolan's tweets:
<table class="image-container" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/50f56b66eab8eaac0f000000-520-324/screen shot 2013-01-15 at 9.43.19 am.png" border="0" alt="dolan aaron swarz tweets" /></div><a href="https://twitter.com/tomjdolan">@tomjdolan/Twitter</a></td></tr></table>
DON'T MISS: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aaron-swartzs-lawyer-says-he-would-have-won-2013-1">Aaron Swartz's Lawyer Explains Why He Would Have Won The Data Theft Case &gt;</a>

Prosecutor's Husband Fights Back Against Everyone Criticizing The Case Against Aaron Swartz 

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55cb66e92acae7f4028bf9ca-2911-2183/gettyimages-456422324.jpg" alt="Steve Wynn" data-mce-source="Getty Images / Ethan Miller" data-mce-caption="Steve Wynn" />Getty Images / Ethan MillerSteve Wynn</div></div></div>"I've had enough of Mayor Walsh," billionaire casino mogul <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/08/10/steve-wynn-has-had-enough-mayor-walsh/bKE0e0pR988yhvsWqoiCxK/story.html">Steve Wynn told The Boston Globe</a> in a recent phone interview.It's the latest in a knock down, drag out fight between Wynn and the City of Boston over where and how Wynn Entertainment can build its $1.7 billion Everett casino project. Boston has asked a court to invalidate Wynn's casino license, accusing the company of influencing the licensing process in its favor."I can't negotiate with him," Wynn told The Boston Globe. "The man is obviously irresponsible," he added."The mayor has to get off his butt."Yes. Butt.There are allegations of a retired state troopers on Wynn's payroll checking out confidential files in the attorney general's office. According to the Globe, the files pertained to Charles Lightbody, a felon who owned some property Wynn wanted to build on.Wynn refers to Lightbody as an "idiot" and denies these allegations.From the Globe:He also insisted he had no prior knowledge of an improper ownership in the Everett land. It came to light, according to Wynn, when "this moron Lightbody called some hoodlum in jail. . . . These two idiots had a conversation." During that conversation, Wynn said, Lightbody said he had not really sold his ownership shares in the land. When Karen Wells, the gaming commission's investigator, found out about it, Wynn said, she told one of his representatives that "they tried to trick you." Now, asks Wynn, "Should we be punished for that?"US Attorney Carmen Ortiz's office filed Court documents saying that the city "spewed and spun" rumors to build the allegations in a case against Wynn.We throw our hands up on this one.<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/08/10/steve-wynn-has-had-enough-mayor-walsh/bKE0e0pR988yhvsWqoiCxK/story.html">For the full story, head to the Boston Globe&gt;&gt;</a> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sharks-spotted-coast-england-2015-7">People were baffled by 50 sharks circling in shallow waters off the English coast</a></h3> <div> <div> <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="R1c2tjdjrwFAGrHUqd0W71KfHPLzHONw" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> <script> if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; } RunFunctions.push(function() { var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'R1c2tjdjrwFAGrHUqd0W71KfHPLzHONw',{ autoplay: 'false' }); }); </script> <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div> </div> <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script> </div>

Steve Wynn has 'had enough' of the Mayor of Boston

<div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge" style="width:401px"><div class="image"><a title_source="Justice Department Brief" title_caption="Assistant U.S. Attorney Heymann said he received this postcard, according to a DOJ filing." class="zoomin" href="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/515c6883eab8ea8237000002-960/threatening-head-postcard-sent-to-aaron-swartz-prosecutors.png"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/515c6883eab8ea8237000002-757-567/threatening-head-postcard-sent-to-aaron-swartz-prosecutors.png?maxX=401&amp;maxY=300" border="0" alt="threatening head postcard sent to Aaron Swartz prosecutors" width="401" height="300" /></a></div><a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2013/04/112-main.pdf">Justice Department Brief</a>Assistant U.S. Attorney Heymann said he received this postcard, according to a DOJ filing.</div>Federal <keyword id="6497399" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Prosecutors">prosecutors</keyword> at the head of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-details-about-aaron-swartz-case-2013-1" target="_blank">Aaron Swartz case</a> have received a threatening email and postcard, and one prosecutor even had his Facebook page hacked, the Justice Department said in a court filing last week.
Wired reports that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tom-dolan-defends-carmen-ortiz-2013-1" target="_blank">U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz</a> and lead prosecutor Stephen Heymann have been the <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/04/swartz-prosecutors-threatened" target="_blank">targets of the harassment</a>.
Jack W. Pirozzolo, an assistant U.S. attorney for <keyword id="21044" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Massachusetts">Massachusetts</keyword>, revealed a deeply unsettling <a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2013/04/exhibitf.pdf" target="_blank">postcard</a> sent to Heymann featuring his father's head in a guillotine and an <keyword id="169875" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="anonymous">Anonymous</keyword> mask in the corner. His father, <a href="http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/index.html?id=28" target="_blank">Philip Heymann</a>, is a Harvard <keyword id="6355470" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Law">Law</keyword> professor and former deputy attorney general.
Heymann also received a flippant email rubbing in the fat that his personal information had been posted online (or <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/13/doxxing-it-s-like-hacking-but-legal.html" target="_blank">dox</a>'d), according to the <a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2013/04/112-main.pdf" target="_blank">in the filing</a>:
ROFLMAO just saw you were totally dox’d over the weekend by Anonymous. How does it feel to become an enemy of the state? FYI, you might want to move out of the country and change your name . . .
The email included Heymann's home address and personal phone number, among other personal details.

Aaron Swartz's Prosecutors Are Getting Creepy Threats

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5113a97c69bedd6611000038-909-681/aaron-swartz-reddit-3.jpeg?maxX=400&amp;maxY=300" border="0" alt="aaron swartz reddit" width="400" height="300" /></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/2590425651/">Flickr via Joi Ito</a></div>U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa is blasting <keyword id="6497399" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Prosecutors">prosecutors</keyword> for what he says was an overzealous prosecution of famed Internet activist <keyword id="715627" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Aaron-Swartz">Aaron Swartz</keyword>.
After Swartz killed himself in his New York apartment, his family <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/statement-family-aaron-swartz-2013-1">said a too-aggressive criminal hacking prosecution</a> spurred the 26-year-old to take his own life.
Now Issa has joined the bandwagon, saying members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that he chairs suspect U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz was <a href="http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_politics/2013/02/pol_carmen_ortiz_abused_her_power">motivated to prosecute Swartz at least in part </a>by ambition, the Boston Herald reported Wednesday.
“We suspect, we know, some of it had to do with ambition. Big prosecutions," Issa reportedly said at a Washington D.C. memorial for Swartz. "Smart people being brought down. That’s regrettable. Because the best and brightest in our prosecution, U.S. attorneys, should care about disposing of small cases quickly and big cases properly. And this is not a big case."
The oversight committee has agreed to <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2013/02/05/deptartment-justice-brief-house-committee-aaron-swartz-prosecution/HPbdUw8GyRenI6z9ZBHEaJ/story.html">open an inquiry into the case</a> against Swartz and is looking for answers from the Justice Department about whether the severity of the case against the activist actually fit the <keyword id="39494" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Crime">crime</keyword>, The Boston Globe reported Tuesday.
Swartz was facing jail time stemming from criminal hacking charges after he snuck into <keyword id="54274" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="MIT">MIT</keyword> and downloaded massive amounts of academic papers from the digital library JSTOR.
But his lawyers have said the school's network was open and since <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aaron-swartzs-lawyer-says-he-would-have-won-2013-1">Swartz was "no fraudster,"</a> U.S. attorneys were being unduly harsh with their client.
“We are going to work out restraints on this kind of abuse in the future,” Issa said, according to the Herald. “And that restraint will be intended to ensure that harmless acts are treated appropriately. Even if in fact they remain against the <keyword id="6355470" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Law">law</keyword>, they have to be treated as harmless acts.”
Issa isn't the first lawmaker to attack Ortiz and her team for the way they handled Swartz's case.
Top Senate Republican John Cornyn has suggested the government treated Swartz so harshly because it was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sen-john-cornyn-talks-aaron-swartz-2013-1">trying to get back at him</a> for making too many Freedom of Information Act requests.
DON'T MISS: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-watt-talks-steve-heymann-2013-1">Ex-Con Shares How Hard It Is To Be Targeted By One Of Aaron Swartz's Prosecutors &gt;</a>

Rep. Issa Slams Prosecutors For How They Handled The Aaron Swartz Case

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5171f19a6bb3f79d3100001a-646-484/tom-menino-press-conference.png?maxX=400" border="0" alt="Tom menino press conference" width="400" /></div>CNNBoston Mayor Tom Menino</div>Officials are holding a press conference after announcing <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/reports-shots-fired-in-watertown-2013-4" target="_blank">the arrest of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev</a>. 
Boston Police Chief Ed Davis said that the suspect was in "serious condition" at a local hospital.
Davis said that police caught the suspect after being alerted by a man living in the house, who walked outside and saw blood around his boat. He opened the tarp and saw a the suspect covered in blood, retreated, and alerted police.
"We set up a perimeter around that boat and over the course of the next hour or so, we exchanged gunfire with the suspect who was inside the boat," Davis said. "And ultimately, the hostage rescue team or FBI made an entry into the boat and removed the suspect who was still alive in the boat."
"We're exhausted folks, but we have a victory here tonight," Massachusetts Police Col. Timothy Allen said.
"Tonight we feel a tremendous sense of gratitude and relief," said U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz. "Tonight we can sleep a little bit easier."
Said Boston Mayor Tom Menino: "I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you."
"I feel so good about this, I tell you. I'm so happy. And people in the greater Boston area will sleep tonight."

BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Suspect In 'Serious Condition'

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5111579a69bedd476500001d-511/aaron-swartz-girlfriend-taren.jpeg?maxX=400" border="0" alt="aaron swartz girlfriend taren" width="400" /></div><a href="http://tarensk.tumblr.com/post/42260548767/why-aaron-died">Tumblr</a><keyword id="715627" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Aaron-Swartz">Aaron Swartz</keyword> and his girlfriend, Taren.</div>A few weeks ago, Internet activist and Reddit co-founder <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/26-year-old-reddit-co-founder-aaron-swartz-has-died-2013-1">Aaron Swartz committed suicide.</a>
He left no note in his New York apartment explaining his death. Many assumed the 26-year-old was depressed based on an earlier blog post Swartz had written. 
Swartz was facing potential jail time for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aaron-swartz-plea-deal-2013-1">hacking into MIT's computer network and stealing copies of 4.8 million academic papers. </a>
But Swartz's live-in girlfriend, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, doesn't think depression killed Aaron.
She, like Swartz's father, believes <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aaron-swartzs-father-says-his-son-was-killed-by-the-government-2013-1">the government indirectly killed Swartz.</a> And her words are damning.
<a href="http://tarensk.tumblr.com/post/42260548767/why-aaron-died">From her Tumblr</a>:
"I believe that Aaron’s death was not caused by depression...I say this because, since his <keyword id="6356238" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Suicide">suicide</keyword>, as I’ve tried to grapple with what happened, I’ve been learning. I’ve researched clinical depression and associated disorders. I’ve read their symptoms, and at least until the last 24 hours of his life, Aaron didn’t fit them. 
...I believe Aaron’s death was caused by exhaustion, by fear, and by uncertainty. I believe that Aaron’s death was caused by a persecution and a prosecution that had already wound on for 2 years (what happened to our right to a speedy trial?) and had already drained all of his financial resources. I believe that Aaron’s death was caused by a criminal justice system that prioritizes power over mercy, vengeance over justice; a system that punishes innocent people for trying to prove their innocence instead of accepting plea deals that mark them as criminals in perpetuity; a system where incentives and power structures align for prosecutors to destroy the life of an innovator like Aaron in the pursuit of their own ambitions.
Ask yourself this: If on January 10, Steve Heymann and Carmen Ortiz at the Massachusetts US Attorney’s office had called Aaron’s lawyer and said they’d realized their mistake and that they were dropping all charges — or even for that matter that they were ready to offer a reasonable plea deal that wouldn’t have marked Aaron as a felon for the rest of his life — would Aaron have killed himself on January 11?
The answer is unquestionably no.

Aaron Swartz's Girlfriend Has A Damning Theory About The Young Reddit Co-Founder's Suicide

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/51014fe669beddbf2100001a-400-300/400px-andrew%20auernheimer.jpg?maxX=400&amp;maxY=300" border="0" alt="Andrew " Weev="" Auernheimer="" width="400" height="300" /></div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Weevilicious.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/Weev</a>Andrew "<keyword id="1659957" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Weev">Weev</keyword>" Auernheimer in 2010</div>Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer, the hacker who called attention to AT&amp;T's poor security by releasing hundreds of thousands of iPad owners' email addresses, will be sentenced in a New Jersey court on Monday for computer crimes.
Despite facing as much as 10 years in jail, he is unrepentant, he made clear in a recent, profanity-laced phone interview with Business Insider.
"Just throw me in prison at this point," Auernheimer said.
In 2010, Auernheimer and a compatriot, Daniel Spitler, discovered that visiting an unsecured AT&amp;T Web server and entering a number associated with the customer's wireless account allowed him to obtain that customer's email address.
By altering the number and repeatedly querying the server, Auernheimer and Spitler were able to obtain hundreds of thousands of email addresses, which they then released to Gawker.
In 2011, Spitler <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/23/daniel-spitler-ipad-hack-email-address-theft_n_883240.html">pled guilty</a> to one count of conspiracy to obtain unauthorized access to computers and one count of identity theft, charges which carried as 12-18-month prison sentence.
Auernheimer, who estimates he and his supporters have spent $250,000 to $300,000 fighting his prosecution, wasn't willing to plea guilty, arguing that all he did was access a public Web server—an action which, if the prosecution's logic is followed, would make all Internet users criminals.
"I'm going to tell everyone in that court what they deserve," Auernheimer told us. "I'm not going to go, 'Oh, what I did is so terrible, I'm so sorry.'"
Asked to write a statement accepting responsibility prior to sentencing, Auernheimer instead <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/21/ipad-hack-statement-of-responsibility/">wrote a fiery letter of protest on TechCrunch</a>.
"I'm going to defend people's right to access public web APIs until the day I die," Auernheimer said. (An API, or application programming interface, is a way for one application to access data from another application—in this case, AT&amp;T's system for providing a user's email address.)
Auernheimer compared his prosecution to that of Aaron Swartz, the Reddit cofounder who recently committed suicide after learning that Assistant United States Attorney Stephen Heymann was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-was-aaron-swartz-harsly-prosecuted-2013-2">seeking jail time</a> in pursuing charges that Swartz illegally accessed MIT's network to download millions of academic articles from JSTOR.
"A sane society would lynch [Heymann] in the square—him and his boss, Carmen Ortiz," Auernheimer said.
And how does Auernheimer feel about his prosecutors?
For once, Auernheimer held back.
"I probably shouldn't comment on that," he said with a laugh.
As for jail? Auernheimer says he intends to continue "trolling," or performing stunts and other actions in hopes of provoking a response, even without regular access to a computer.
"I'm looking forward to it," Auernheimer said. "I'm sure there's going to be a lot of trolling done from a prison cell. I can knock a good one on Western civilization just by writing letters."

Infamous iPad Hacker Makes No Apologies As He Faces Jail Time

<table class="image-container" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5171fb826bb3f76249000000-620-300/sfvfrtxyswm.jpg" border="0" alt="watertown boston" /></div>REUTERS</td></tr></table>
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is in police custody after multiple clashes with the police during a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-map-shows-the-boston-manhunt-from-beginning-to-end-2013-4">nearly 24-hour manhunt</a>.
The suspect is said to be "Alive, conscious, captured," <a href="https://twitter.com/GlobeJenPeter/status/325412097041256448">according to the</a> Boston Globe. NBC News says he has "at least" one gunshot wound and is being treated at Mass General Hospital.
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-2013-4">Dzhokhar</a> and his brother <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tamerlan-tsarnaev-boston-marathon-suspect-2013-4">Tamerlan</a>, who was killed in a gunfight on Thursday, are suspected of planting bombs at the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing three and injuring nearly 200.
Watertown, Mass., had been on lockdown for most of the day while authorities conducted a manhunt.
Boston Police Chief Ed Davis said that police caught the suspect after being alerted by a man living in a house, who walked outside and saw blood around his boat. He opened the tarp and saw the suspect covered in blood, retreated, and alerted police.
"We set up a perimeter around that boat and over the course of the next hour or so, we exchanged gunfire with the suspect who was inside the boat," Davis said. "And ultimately, the hostage rescue team or FBI made an entry into the boat and removed the suspect who was still alive in the boat."
"We're exhausted folks, but we have a victory here tonight," Massachusetts Police Col. Timothy Allen said.
"Tonight we feel a tremendous sense of gratitude and relief," said U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz. "Tonight we can sleep a little bit easier."
Said Boston Mayor Tom Menino: "I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you."
"I feel so good about this, I tell you. I'm so happy. And people in the greater Boston area will sleep tonight."
President Barack Obama wrapped up a grueling week for the nation by hailing a victory — the capture and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/reports-shots-fired-in-watertown-2013-4" target="_blank">arrest of the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings</a>. 
 "We've closed an important chapter in this tragedy," Obama said in the White House briefing room shortly after 10 p.m. Friday night. The "terrorists" in Boston failed, he said, "because the people of Boston refused to be intimidated."
<div id="content" class="content">
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"All in all this has been a tough week, but we have seen the character of our country once more," he said. "And as president, I'm confident that we have the courage and the resilience and the spirit to overcome these challenges and to go forward as one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
</div>
</div>
</div>
The bombing investigation appeared to move forward when the FBI released images of two suspects later identified (<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/boston-bombers-martin-richard-and-reddit-veto-cispa-2013-4">with the help of the Internet</a>) as Tamerlan and Dzhokhar.
The suspects apparently <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-map-shows-the-boston-manhunt-from-beginning-to-end-2013-4">fled; allegedly shooting and killing an MIT campus police officer, carjacking a Mercedes SUV, and chasing the police while throwing improvised explosives out the window</a>. Tamerlan was shot dead early on Friday morning. Dzhokhar was apprehended at 8:42 p.m. on Friday night.
MORE COVERAGE: Who is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-2013-4">Dzhokhar</a>? Who was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tamerlan-tsarnaev-boston-marathon-suspect-2013-4">Tamerlan</a>? Father calls youngest son an <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/father-wants-bomb-suspect-to-surrender-peacefully-2013-4">angel</a>. Uncle says "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dzhokar-tamerlan-tsarnaevs-uncle-ruslan-tsarni-boston-marathon-suspects-bombing-2013-4">they do not deserve to live on this Earth</a>."
<div class="image-container" style="width:620px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5171fc1e69bedd5303000004-1200-862/fvfv23333rtxysx3-(1).jpg" border="0" alt="watertown boston" width="620" /></div>Brian Snyder</div>
<div class="image-container" style="width:620px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5171fc796bb3f7f542000010-1200-813/sdf0000rtxysws.jpg" border="0" alt="watertown boston" width="620" /></div>REUTERS/Jim Bourg</div>

BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT ARRESTED

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/51f7f5b5eab8ea486b000000-500-375/aaron-swartz-and-taren-stinebrickner-kauffman.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="Aaron Swartz and Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman" width="480" /><a href="http://rememberaaronsw.com/">Remember Aaron</a><keyword id="715627" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Aaron-Swartz">Aaron Swartz</keyword> and Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman</div></div>In January, a celebrated Internet activist, Aaron Swartz, committed <keyword id="6356238" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Suicide">suicide</keyword>.
Swartz, who had long battled depression, was being prosecuted for downloading – or stealing – 4.8 million academic papers using <keyword id="54274" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="MIT">MIT</keyword>'s network from an online service, JSTOR.
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aaron-swartz-plea-deal-2013-1">Prosecutors charged him with 13 felonies</a> as a result of the hack, which add up to decades in jail. However, Swartz was being offered a plea deal that would only total 4 months behind bars.
Shwartz's family and friends say the prosecution's aggressive charges were a driving force behind Swartz's suicide. They also blame MIT for not defending Swartz as the trial unfolded.
Two days after Swartz's death, MIT's President L. Rafael Reif asked one of its professors, Hal Abelson, to investigate the school's involvement in the matter. After reading through 10,000 pages of material and interviewing more than 50 people, the 150-page report has been published.
The report, which was made public this morning, finds that MIT acted fairly.
Abelson summarizes his key findings in the report's introduction:
<ul>
<li>MIT did not know Aaron Swartz was the person behind the theft of academic papers until his arrest.</li>
<li>MIT did not ask for Swartz to be prosecuted. It also did not ask for him not to be prosecuted, despite please from Swartz's family, lawyers and 2 members of MIT's faculty. </li>
<li>The report says MIT acted this way because it wanted to remain "neutral." It also didn't feel that issuing a statement in support of Swartz would sway prosecutors.</li>
</ul>
"It makes clear that MIT did not 'target' Aaron Swartz, we did not seek federal prosecution, punishment or jail time, and we did not oppose a plea bargain," <a href="http://swartz-report.mit.edu/docs/letter-from-president-reif.pdf">MIT President Reif writes of the report</a>.
He also encourages the community to take a hard look at the fifth section of the report, which calls into question the way MIT acted after Swartz's arrest.
Those include:
<ul>
<li>"What are MIT's obligations to members of our extended community?: (Swartz's father was an MIT grad)</li>
<li>"Should MIT strengthen its activities in support of open access to scholarly publications?"</li>
</ul>
Swartz's girlfriend Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, who found his body in their apartment, vehemently disagrees with the report. 
She says he'd "be alive today if MIT had acted as JSTOR did" against the prosecution. She made a similar statement at Swartz's memorial service earlier this year.
Here is her statement on the report: 
MIT’s behavior throughout the case was reprehensible, and this report is quite frankly a whitewash.
Here are the facts: This report claims that MIT was “neutral” -- but MIT’s lawyers gave prosecutors total access to witnesses and evidence, while refusing access to Aaron’s lawyers to the exact same witnesses and evidence. That’s not neutral. The fact is that all MIT had to do was say publicly, “We don’t want this prosecution to go forward” – and Steve Heymann and Carmen Ortiz would have had no case. We have an institution to contrast MIT with – JSTOR, who came out immediately and publicly against the prosecution. Aaron would be alive today if MIT had acted as JSTOR did. MIT had a moral imperative to do so. And even now, MIT is still stonewalling. Wired reporter Kevin Poulsen FOIA’d the Secret Service’s files on Aaron’s case, and judge ordered them to be released. The only reason they haven’t been is because MIT has filed an objection. If MIT is at all serious about implementing any reforms to stop this kind of tragedy from happening again, it must stop objecting to the release of information about the case.”

MIT Concludes It Did Nothing Improper In Case Of Internet Activist's Aaron Swartz's Suicide - Swartz's Girlfriend Calls 'BS'

<div class="image-container" style="width:639px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/50f18c696bb3f75032000006-1024-683/2590425651_71fec0377c_b.jpeg?maxX=639&amp;maxY=426" border="0" alt="aaron swartz reddit" width="639" height="426" /></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/2590425651/">Flickr via Joi Ito</a></div>
After 26-year old entrepreneur and activist <keyword id="715627" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Aaron-Swartz">Aaron Swartz</keyword> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/26-year-old-reddit-co-founder-aaron-swartz-has-died-2013-1">killed himself last week</a>, his family and friends laid some of the blame on federal prosecutors who had charged him with crimes for a 2011 hacking incident.
The contention was that the prosecutors behaved unfairly, painting Swartz's actions in the worst possible light and charging him absurdly harshly—enough to get him hit with a life sentence in prison.
The charges put Swartz's life on hold, and according to his friend Lawrence Lessig, bankrupted him. The stress and cost of preparing for a trial, Swartz's friends said, contributed to his suicide.
As <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aaron-swartzs-death-questions-2013-1">I described in a previous article</a>, legal situations like the one Swartz was in are unfathomably stressful. To a very large extent, your life is in the prosecutors' hands, and deciding to try to defend yourself is a risky, expensive, and all-consuming decision.
If you have "done it"—if you are guilty as charged—the much safer and less expensive route is to plead guilty and accept the consequences.
But this legal strategy depends on the prosecutor having treated you fairly and offered you a fair deal.
if you haven't "done it," or you are guilty only of lesser infractions, or if the prosecutor is insisting on a draconian admission and punishment that is way out of proportion with your actions, then the decision becomes even more difficult.
That's why "prosecutorial discretion" is so important.
Although our system does give the accused a right to defend themselves, the reality is that prosecutors have a huge amount of power and leverage—to the extent that prosecutors don't just act as "adversaries" in this system but as judge and jury. And if prosecutors use that power to force plea deals or harass or "bully" people, they can justifiably be accused of overreach.
In the wake of the Swartz tragedy, it seems important to figure out whether the prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's office did, in fact, overreach.
Before sharing what I have learned on that question, I want to be clear about one thing: Although the stress of being prosecuted probably weighed heavily on Swartz and contributed to his decision to kill himself, it would be grossly unfair to suggest that the U.S. prosecutors "killed" him. Swartz had struggled with depression for years. And that depression—which is an extremely serious affliction—likely played the major role in his death.
The prosecutors in this case, meanwhile, like all prosecutors, have a difficult job, and they play a critical role in society. As long as prosecutors do their jobs fairly, they should not be held responsible for the stress and challenges in the lives of those they investigate and prosecute.
The key is whether the prosecutors do their jobs fairly. Or whether they abuse the power of their position to "make statements" or further their own goals and careers.
In the Swartz case, we can begin to determine that by asking the following questions:
<ul>
<li>Was it fair for prosecutors to charge Swartz with the crimes they charged him with? (13 felonies in connection with a hacking incident in which Swartz spoofed his way into MIT's computer network, took steps to disguise his identity and defeat electronic efforts to stop him, and downloaded 4.8 million academic papers from the online service JSTOR).</li>
<li>Did prosecutors offer Swartz a fair plea deal?</li>
</ul>
On the first question, based on the facts outlined in the indictment the prosecutors filed, which have not been proven, as well as the information that has come out by those who defend Swartz's actions, it seems that the prosecutors were acting harshly but within their rights.
Swartz, like many idealistic people in the tech and activist community, appears to have believed that information should be free and that Swartz was therefore just liberating information—academic papers—that should have been more freely available. But in the process of liberating these academic papers, Swartz seems to have broken laws. And even those who believe the prosecutors were unfair to him, like Lawrence Lessig, believe that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aaron-swartzs-death-questions-2013-1">he behaved unethically</a>.
This <a href="http://www.volokh.com/2013/01/14/aaron-swartz-charges/">analysis on The Volokh Conspiracy</a>, which is written by law professors, concludes that most of the charges against Swartz were fair. Swartz's own attorneys, meanwhile, don't seem to dispute Swartz's alleged actions in the case: Rather, they are saying they would have won the case <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aaron-swartzs-lawyer-says-he-would-have-won-2013-1">because the government violated search and seizure rules when it took one of his laptops</a>. (Prosecutors should have to follow the rules, and if they didn't follow them, Swartz should have won his trial. But that's a different issue than whether he broke these laws.)
The alternate view is that, because Swartz's actions were essentially victimless, and because the owners of the service he hacked (JSTOR) and the network he used (MIT), did not take action against him, that the prosecutors should have just let it go or charged Swartz with a misdemeanor or other lesser offense.
This seems like the more reasonable view. Aside from slowing down JSTOR's service and creating an inconvenience, Swartz's actions didn't hurt anyone. "Stealing" a digital copy of something also does not have the same impact as stealing a physical thing, no matter how the action is portrayed. (It's not okay, by any means. But it is different. The "victim" in a digital theft still owns the thing—all that has been stolen is a copy. And because, in this case, the digital things that were stolen, academic papers, are generally available for free anyway—and because Swartz didn't do anything with his copies—it's not as though Swartz caused a major financial loss for JSTOR).
<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:419px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/50f58dbaecad046e5400000c-448/cameron-ortiz.png" border="0" alt="Cameron Ortiz" width="419" height="313" /></div>U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz</div>So based on an initial look at this question, my sense is that the prosecutors' charging decisions were very harsh but within the range of "fair." They took a hard-ass view, perhaps because one of them, Stephen Heymann, has made a career out of prosecuting cyber-crimes and clearly feels strongly about them. But they don't appear to have blatantly overreached. Swartz just had the bad luck to run into a prosecutor who was very passionate about defending the lines that Swartz appears to have crossed.
The second question is whether the prosecutors offered Swartz a fair plea deal.
<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/15/aaron-swartz-s-unbending-prosecutors-insisted-on-prison-time.html">According to Michael Daly in The Daily Beast</a>, Swartz's attorney was lobbying for the following deal:
<ul>
<li>Plead guilty to a misdemeanor</li>
<li>No jail time</li>
</ul>
The prosecutors, meanwhile, were insisting on:
<ul>
<li>Plead guilty to all 13 felonies</li>
<li>4 months in jail</li>
</ul>
Insisting that Swartz plead guilty to 13 felonies is undeniably harsh—arguably absurdly so in light of the circumstances of this incident. Importantly, however, the "4 month" jail sentence is vastly shorter than the effective "life imprisonment" that would have resulted from adding the sentences for all the charged felonies on top of one another.
Was the prosecutors' offer a fair deal?
Given that Swartz presumably believed that he had done something morally right if legally wrong, this probably seemed like an outrageously harsh sentence. And many Swartz defenders, who view his actions as unethical but harmless, agree.
It would have been extremely tough for Swartz to plead guilty to being a felon. And Swartz's attorney was, probably justifiably, worried about what might happen to him in prison. (This is unfortunately a reality that needs to be considered here.)
But it's also important to note that there is a big difference between four months in prison and "35 years in prison," which is the sentence you get if you just add up the sentences for all of the felonies. And Swartz does appear to have broken some laws.
Swartz's other option, meanwhile, was defending himself. Although Swartz's lawyer believes he had a good case, and although he would probably have been a sympathetic defendant, he obviously could have lost. And if he had lost, he would have been convicted of at least some of the felonies and gone to jail for much longer than four months. (The prosecutor's estimate, <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/15/aaron-swartz-s-unbending-prosecutors-insisted-on-prison-time.html">Swartz's lawyer told the Daily Beast</a>, was 7 years—because the judge in the case is known for harsh sentences). And, regardless of whether he won or lost, Swartz's trial would have been extraordinarily stressful and time-consuming and would have cost him a fortune—a fortune that, according to Lawrence Lessig and Swartz's friends, he no longer had.
The bottom line, at least based on the information I've seen to date, is that the U.S. Attorneys in this case—Carmen Ortiz and Stephen Heymann—seem to have taken a very hard line on Swartz's case.
Whether Ortiz and Heymann took too hard a line, or whether they should have been fairer and more understanding in their plea offer, is a question that they should—and no doubt will—ask themselves frequently in the coming years.
And Aaron Swartz's case is certainly a good excuse for the country to evaluate how much power we place in the hands of prosecutors.
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aaron-swartzs-death-questions-2013-1">Swartz's death is a tragedy,</a> regardless.
But if we can use it to make our system better, Aaron Swartz probably would take solace in that.
SEE ALSO: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aaron-swartzs-death-questions-2013-1">Aaron Swartz's Death Is A Tragedy—And Some Questions Need To Be Answered</a>

You Searched For "Carmen Ortiz" and got 14 results

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MIT Concludes It Did Nothing Improper In Case Of Internet Activist's Aaron Swartz's Suicide - Swartz's Girlfriend Calls 'BS'

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