MIT regrets any role in tragedy
‘Analysis’ ordered after accused hacker’s suicide
January 14, 2013
By
Chris Cassidy / Boston Herald
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Laurel J. Sweet / Boston Herald
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MIT has initiated an investigation into its response to alleged hacking by the late Aaron Swartz, whose suicide Friday prompted Internet freedom advocates to accuse U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s office of prosecutorial bullying over Swartz’s alleged cyber-theft of academic documents.
“I want to express very clearly that I and all of us at MIT are extremely saddened by the death of this promising young man who touched the lives of so many,” MIT President L. Rafael Reif wrote yesterday. “It pains me to think that MIT played any role in a series of events that have ended in tragedy.”
Reif ordered an “analysis” of decisions that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology made after Swartz’s alleged hacking of its network in 2010.
Court documents filed the day Swartz hanged himself in his New York apartment indicate federal prosecutors and Swartz’s lawyers were preparing to face off in a Jan. 25 evidentiary hearing over whether a Secret Service search of his seized laptop should be admissible. Prosecutors were expected to argue that Swartz effectively abandoned the laptop when he placed it in a wiring closet at MIT to allegedly steal information remotely.
Swartz faced up to 30 years in prison. Civil libertarians argued prosecutors never should have pursued the case against Swartz.
“This is bullying from people with real power,” said Cambridge civil liberties attorney Harvey Silverglate, who contended that Swartz broke no federal laws and was acting in pursuit of principle, not profit.
Instapundit.com’s Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor, said Swartz’s case shows why prosecutors should be held accountable for overreaching in their charges: “Right now, there’s basically no downside for a prosecutor who does that. They need to have skin in the game, just like the defendant does.”
Swartz’s family has blamed his suicide on an aggressive prosecution. Swartz, 26, co-founder of the news discussion site Reddit.com, had written about the experience of depression on his blog in 2007 — several years before the federal case — as well as in a 2007 short story that ends in the main character stepping out into traffic. His Twitter feed, however, appeared upbeat in recent months, focusing on current topics, such as the minting of a trillion-dollar coin and the computer industry, without apparent references to his federal case or depression.
Efforts to reach Swartz’s lawyers yesterday were unsuccessful. Ortiz’s office, citing the family’s loss, declined to comment. While Swartz faced a hefty sentence, former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said first-time nonviolent offenders likely get much lesser penalties, even just probation.
“This happens rarely,” Sullivan said of Swartz’s suicide. “When it does, I have to tell you, my experience is those people close to the investigation feel a deep sense of sadness, as well.” |
