Naming and shaming Carmen M. Ortiz for destroying the life of a young man is exactly what is necessary. She brought 13 felony counts against him for downloading articles that should be freely available, after JSTOR itself had dropped the charges. Destroying her career and seeing her fired in disgrace will send a message to all other overzealous prosecutors, in the same way that she surely thought her prosecution of Swartz would have a "deterrent" effect.

Seeing her dismissed and disgraced is in fact the only thing that will send such a message to such Javerts, as they have disabled the voice of the people by routing around jury trials and they are appointed rather than subject to elections. Carmen M. Ortiz is running for higher office on the backs of high profile prosecutions, and now on the body of Aaron Swartz. It is incumbent upon us to see that she does not get there, that this behavior is NOT rewarded.

Example: http://www.justice.gov/usao/ma/news/2011/December/EremianVer...

  Lyons is the first defendant in the U.S. to be charged and 
  convicted of violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling 
  Enforcement Act (UIGEA). The statute was enacted by 
  Congress in 2006 to deter the use of the U.S. banking 
  system to pay Internet gambling debts incurred by U.S. 
  citizens.

  Unites [sic] States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said, 
  “Today’s convictions should serve as a message to those 
  involved with illegal gambling schemes that the government 
  will apply the full weight of its resources to identify, 
  investigate and prosecute individuals who seek to profit 
  from offshore gambling.”

  ... 

  The defendants face up to 20 years in prison on the RICO 
  charges; five years in prison on the illegal gambling 
  charges; and two years in prison on the wire act charges. 
  Lyons also faces three years in prison on the tax charges, 
  five years in prison on the interstate travel in aid of 
  racketeering and UIGEA charges and 20 years in prison on 
  the money laundering charges.Additionally each count also  
  carries three to five years of supervised release and 
  fines up to $250,000.

"Today's convictions should serve as a message" over online gambling, which was just made illegal by fiat in 2006 in a rider tacked on to the Dubai Ports World Bill! This woman is routinely involved in travesties of justice related to online activities and thinks this means sending "a message". The Internet needs to send a message back, and force her resignation in disgrace.

Man this so sucks.

If you hit someone with enough felony counts sooner or later something can snap. This in response to those that claim the DOJ didn't have anything to do with Aaron killing himself.

For some people the mere fact of being suspected of a crime they didn't commit is enough to push them over the edge. When you're placed in a holding cell the police will remove your laces from your boots so you don't hang yourself, that's how heavy being imprisoned can weigh on some.

Aaron did something that he thought was right, that he truly believed in and that upset a large number of applecarts and that had far reaching implications, had the proverbial book thrown at him and then some. The prospect of significant amounts of jail time (35 years for downloading scientific papers, it shouldn't even be a crime) and/or a felony record must have weighed very heavy on him.

For a person that is of a very stable mental make-up that would already be extreme pressure.

For someone with a mental issue it may very well be all it takes.

Aaron was inspiring to me, I think that no copyrighted piece of paper is worth a human life and that the DOJ, even if they are not directly responsible at least indirectly carry some of the responsibility here for beating down someone who was fighting for an extremely good cause in a somewhat haphazard way. The letter of the law and the spirit of the law should both be taken into account.

I hope those that had a hand in Aarons' continued prosecution will sleep miserably for a long time to come. Likely it won't weigh on their consciousness at all.