There's actually quite a precedent of engaging in political activism from jail.

absolutely. in fact jail could have been a way to gain more attention, Gandhi?

He would never have been sent to jail for 38 years.

So how many then? 5? 10? 20?

How many less than the figure that was being thrown around as his possible sentence is he supposedly a disappointment to us all for avoiding?

Oh, I forgot, he can be an activist from prison? Nothing to worry about then!

How many on here would honestly do it for even 5 years? I wouldn't. I'd sooner kill myself out of spite.

DOJ strongly suggested they'd be shooting for a 5+ year sentence, which according to the guidelines would have required them to establish losses (stipulating that Swartz had succeeded in his ultimate plan, unimpeded by the countermeasures JSTOR and MIT erected) in the millions of dollars.

Orin Kerr suggests that the likely outcome would have been "anything from probation to a few years", depending on where the judge landed on the financial damages.

Popehat has a really good take (as usual) on the circumstances faced by Aaron Swartz, but it's not as specific as Kerr's, which is the most detailed breakdown I've seen available on what actually happened with the case:

http://volokh.com/2013/01/16/the-criminal-charges-against-aa...

I wouldnt kill myself because of 5 years out of the 40 or so that i probably have left.

Or at the least you might wait until you were convicted and sentenced.

It would have been around 6 months if he would have taken the plea deal. If he didn't it still would not have been anything close to 38 years.

Considering the federal sentencing guidelines for the specific crimes he was charged with and the parameters of those offenses (non-remunerative, no prior convictions, limited damages) his own lawyer wrote that he believed that even had he been convicted, he would have landed in the sentencing levels where probation would have been allowed.

It was the felony and the limits on his future in politics that drove a lot of it.

Some jail time wouldn't have been enough. I think he would have done that. Maybe while in there, bad things might have happened.

But, it was obvious to me Schwartz understood code, people, how to organize and advocacy. He wanted to build a body of people and power and do some things.

To him, a felony conviction undermines all of that, and he saw it as useless, himself useless.

A felony conviction does not appear to have set Robert Morris too far back in life, or prevented him from changing the world.

Yes. It is not the end of the world. And we can see that. Options, Like having it expunged exist too.

That Aaron let it get into his head and could not or would not seek help, nor really understanding so many people would have his back is tragic.