Aaron Swartz commits suicide

Re:Aaron Swartz commits suicide by w1ntermute on Saturday January 12, 2013 @02:42AM (#5046884)

He was being charged with the felony of downloading/distributing research done using public funding so that it could be made freely available to the taxpayers who funded it. JSTOR had no interest in prosecuting him, but the US Attorney's Office decided to go ahead anyway.

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Re:Aaron Swartz commits suicide by optimiz3 on Saturday January 12, 2013 @04:03AM (#5047113)

This would be a perfect opportunity for a White House pardon.

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Re:Aaron Swartz commits suicide by tomjen3 on Saturday January 12, 2013 @04:47AM (#5047230)

Those are only available to the guilty.

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Re:Aaron Swartz commits suicide by jlgreco on Saturday January 12, 2013 @05:38AM (#5047363)

Is that the case in the US? My impression is that Ford gave Nixon a blanket pardon even though Nixon had not (yet, probably) been found guilty of anything.

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Re:Aaron Swartz commits suicide by iso-8859-1 on Saturday January 12, 2013 @08:15AM (#5047689)

You are correct: http://www.factcheck.org/2008/06/blanket-pardons/

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Re:Aaron Swartz commits suicide by icambron on Saturday January 12, 2013 @07:28AM (#5047608)

A promise of a pardon would have done just as well, especially for federal prosecutors. The DOJ isn't going to make a big case out something their boss has promised to throw out. That said, the president being superinvolved in an ongoing case like that would be very strange.

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Re:Aaron Swartz commits suicide by twoodfin on Saturday January 12, 2013 @05:34AM (#5047353)

I assume you mean convicted, but Ford gave Nixon one.

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Re:Aaron Swartz commits suicide by tomjen3 on Saturday January 12, 2013 @02:01PM (#5048531)

Actually I do mean guilty, as I was under the impression that you have to accept your guilt before you could get a pardon.

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