Aaron Swartz's Estate Seeks Release of Documents 131
theodp writes "The Boston Globe reports that the estate of Aaron Swartz filed a motion in federal court in Boston Friday to allow the release of documents in the case that has generated national controversy over the U.S. attorney's aggressive pursuit of a stiff sentence. The Court filing (PDF) suggests that the U.S. attorney's office is still up for jerking Aaron around a little posthumously, seeking what his lawyers termed overbroad redactions, including names and titles that are already publicly known. Swartz's family also seeks the return of his seized property (PDF). Last week, Swartz's girlfriend accused MIT of dragging its feet on investigating his suicide. Meanwhile, Slate's Justin Peters asks if the Justice Department learned anything from the Aaron Swartz case, noting that Matthew Keys, who faces 25 years in prison for crimes that include aiding-and-abetting the display of humorously false content, could replace Swartz as the poster boy for prosecutorial overreach."
the rich don't like that (Score:5, Insightful)
Sadly the only lesson that the DOJ seems to want to teach anyone is "don't fuck with the rich"
Re:Investigation....? (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, being attacked by the government did NOT 'give him depression'.
- so are you saying that a guy, who spent his savings (a million or so) in court because government wouldn't stop with false claims, which by the way had no reason to be brought up even. JSTOR didn't want to press charges, the company that the documents were lifted off.
He was forced into poverty and he was facing something that would amount to life in prison (30 years) in the eyes of a 26 year old.
Yes, I am not a doctor, but I would have been depressed under such circumstances as well.
Re:Political attack (Score:2, Insightful)
Put down the crack pipe, Manning and Swartz couldn't be more different.
Manning wanted to embarrass the United States and he made that very clear in his statement in his court martial. He didn't care about bystanders, international relationships or innocents that could be hurt in his wide spread dump of well over 100,000 documents. Swartz wanted to free information that was otherwise publicly available, had no bystanders to worry about, wasn't going to hurt international relationships and wasn't trying to embarrass anyone.
Putting Swartz on the same stand as a traitor like Manning is a dis-service to Swartz and taints his memory. If you think political dissidents in this country are routinely destroyed than you are as naive as can be. If you want to see real government destruction of dissidents that I invite you to look at country's like Venezuela, Tibet, Russia, Iran or North Korea. Swartz was the victim of an overzealous prosecutor out to make a name for herself, not a Illuminati style conspiracy.
Re:Investigation....? (Score:4, Insightful)
You think he leaked those documents for the sake of personal fame?
The government and military SHOULD be embarrassed for their egregious war crimes and blatant misrepresentation of facts to the American people. I think this leak was hugely significant.
We should give Manning a medal and prosecute the war criminals, starting with Cheney and Bush.
Re:Political attack (Score:4, Insightful)
I most certainly can and do blame the prosecutor. Are you claiming the law put a gun to his head and removed all prosecutorial discretion? It is the prosecutor's responsibility to show such discretion at all times in service of justice.