You're being a bit unfair. It's equally inappropriate for me to speculate about his motives, but I recall there being an undercurrent of melancholia in Aaron's writings even pre-indictment.

I still remember a comment he posted on an "Ask PG & other rich folks: how has your life changed since getting FU money?" thread a few years ago (pre-indictment):

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1511204

"In the short-term, my life was much worse. I spent a lot of really painful time struggling to come to grips with my situation.

"After that was over, things went pretty much back to normal. There's now a low-level fear all the time of losing all the money (something PG's written about recently) and I'm constantly worried I've invested it badly. I didn't make any dramatic life changes so people don't really treat me differently.

"The biggest thing is that it provides a sort of mental backup -- when I'm feeling bad about myself or about to do something risky, I can tell myself not to worry.

"My sense is that it bears out what the happiness research says: dispositional factors are much more important than situational ones. PG was an abnormally happy person before he got rich and he's still abnormally happy. I was pretty miserable before and I'm still miserable. (The reasons are more complicated but the result is I prefer my misery.)"

He posted what appeared to be a suicide note on his blog five years ago, and the police were called.

It's still there, but he edited it to change the name to "Alex".

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dying

I'm being quite restrained. I'm calling for a feeling of guilt, not their public lynching. If I'd been involved in the prosecution I'd be feeling guilty for proceeding in too heavy-handed a fashion and I'm sure most of the people on this forum would too[1].

Frankly if someone is incapable of self-recrimination when something like this arises I don't want them in this kind of role.

[1] Of course this presupposes a motivation of "doing what's best for the country/society" and not "showing this uppity young guy who's boss".

In which case the prosecution should have realised he was a suicide risk and acted appropriately. They seemingly did not.

How would prosecutors go about that? Going through all his blog posts to look for depression? And that would be standard procedure for everyone they prosecute?

Psychiatric assessment is a routine element of any criminal case. At any rate, it is in the UK.

So you're saying that in the UK they don't prosecute people who are depressed? As a Brit, that's news to me.

Come on. This prosecution may be unjust for other reasons, but it's just daft to claim that they should not have prosecuted him because he was depressed.

Did I say at any point that depression should exempt someone from prosecution? No. I said their handling was inappropriate.

If someone is a suicide risk you watch them, and typically ensure they're not left alone.

Stick your straw man where the sun don't shine.

You think Aaron would have let the DA put him on some kind of suicide watch when he wasn't even in custody?

I don't think you're thinking this through. It's natural to be angry, but the DA didn't do anything wrong in relation to his depression, even if the prosecution was unjust for other reasons.

Social care doesn't require custody.

See http://www.mind.org.uk/mental_health_a-z/8042_mental_health_... for an explanation of (in the UK, at least) the rights for those with mental health issues in prosecutorial circumstances.

1) This occurred in the US, not the UK.

2) All of that requires the consent of the person involved. Do you think AS would have suddenly decided to accept support because the DA prosecuting his case offered it? If his family and friends couldn't stop his suicide, you think the DA could have done so?

3) Are you sure it is typically the responsibility of the DA to sort that stuff out in the US?

Reading https://aaronsw.jottit.com/howtoget it seems he was thinking of suicide already many years ago.

Wouldn't they just perceive this as some sort of admission of guilt?

Probably.

To be honest if I had to imagine the people at the attorney's office who decided to prosecute this I'd imagine vaguely malevolent bureaucratic dullards who derive validation from enforcing the rules in a heavy handed fashion.

Disgustingly, that would not surprise me.

They checked their conscience at the door a long time ago.

RIP Aaron, you were too soon for this world.