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March 14, 2013

Attorneys for Aaron Swartz Allege Prosecutorial Misconduct for Withheld Evidence 
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Attorneys for the late Internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz have filed
an ethics complaint over his federal prosecution. Swartz took his own
life in January, weeks before he was set to go to trial for downloading
millions of articles provided by the nonprofit research service JSTOR.
He was facing 35 years in prison, a penalty supporters called
excessively harsh. In a letter to the Justice Department obtained by The
Washington Post, Swartz's attorney Elliot Peters accuses federal
prosecutors of misconduct, saying they withheld exculpatory evidence. An
email withheld from Swartz's attorneys appears to refute prosecutors'
claims they didn't have enough time to obtain a warrant to search
Swartz's laptop. The letter's release comes one week after Attorney
General Eric Holder publicly defended prosecutors' conduct, saying their
case against Swartz marked "a good use of prosecutorial discretion."

 

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