About the criminal prosecution: Carmen Ortiz an Stephen Heymann: Accountability for prosecutorial abuse Imposing real consequences of these federal prosecutors in the Aaron Swarts case is vital for both justice and reform (by Glenn Greenwald) US Attorney Carmen Ortiz is under fire for her office’s conduct in the prosecution of Aaron Swartz. Whenever an avoidable tragedy occurs, it’s common for there to be an intense spate of anger in its immediate aftermath which quickly dissipates as people move on to the next outrage. That’s a key dynamic that enables people in position of authority to evade consequences for their bad acts. But as more facts emerge regarding the conduct of the federal prosecutors in the case of Aaron Swartz- Massachusetts’ US attorney Stephen Heymann -the opposite seems to be taking place: there is a greater and greater momentum for real investigations, accountability and reform. It is urgent that this opportunity not be squandered, that this interest be sustain ed. The Wall Sreet Journal reported this week that- two days before the 26-yerars-old activist killed himself on Friday- federal prosecutors again rejected a plea bargain offer from Swartz’s lawyers that would have kept him out of prison. They instead demanded that he “would need to plead guilty to every count” and made clear that “the government would insist on prison time”. That made a trial on all 15 felony count s- with the threat of a lengthy prison sentence if convicted- a virtual inevitability. Just three months ago, Ortiz’s office, as TechDirt reported, severely escalated the already- excessive four-felony-count indictment by adding nine new felony count s, each of which “carrie(d) the possibility of a fine and imprisonment of up to 10-20 years per felony” meaning “the sentence could conceivably total 50+ years and (a) fine in the area of $4 million.” That meant, as think Progress documented, that Swartz faced “a more severe prison them than killers, slave dealers and bank robbers”. Swartz’s girlfriend, Taren Stienebrickner-Kauffman, told the WSJ that the case had drained all of his money and he could not afford to pay for a trial. At Swartz’s funeral in Chicago on Tuesday, his father flatly stated that his son “was killed by the government” Ortiz and Heymann to continue to refuse to speak publicly about what they did in this case- at least officially. Yesterday, Ortiz’s husband, IBM Corp executive Thomas J. Dolan, took to Twitter and- without identifying himself as the US Attroney’s husband- defended the prosecutors’ actions in response to prominent critics, and even harshly critized the Swartz family for assigning blame to prosecutors “Truly incredible in their own son’s obit they blame others for his death”, Ortiz’s husband wrote. Once Dolan’s identity was discovered, he received assertive criticism and then sheepishly deleted his Twitter account. Clearly, the politically amibitious Ortiz- who was touted just last month by the Boston Globe as a possible Democratic candidate for governor- is feeling serious heat as a result of rising fury over her office’s wildy overzealous pursuit of Swartz (…) Yesterday, (sadly when the activist is dead) the GOP’s House Oversight Committee Chairman, Darrell Issa, announced a formal investigation into the Justice Department’s conduct in this case. Separately, two Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee issued stinging denuntiations, with Democratic Rep. Jared Polis proclaim ng that “the charges were ridiculous and trumped-up” and labeling Swartz a “martyr” for the evils of minimum sentencing guideline es, while Rep Zoe Lofgren Denounced the prosecutors’ behavior as “pretty outrageous” and “way out of line”. A petition on the White House’s website to fire Ortiz quickly exceeded the 25.000 signatures needed to compel a reply, and a similar petition aimed at Heymann has also attracted thousands of signatures, and is likely to gather steam in the wake of revelations that another young hacker committed suicide in 2008 in response to Heymans’s pursuit of him (…) In sum, as CNET’s Declan McCullagh detailed in a comprehensive article this morning, it is Ortiz who “has now found herself in an unusual –and uncomfortable- positions: as the target of an investigation instead of the initiator of one “And that’s exactly as it should be given that, as he documents, there is little question that her office sought to make an example out of Swartz for improper and careerist benefits. Swartz “as enhancing the careers of a group of career prosecutors and a very ambitious –politically-ambitious- U.S. Attorney who loves to have her name in lights,” the Cambridge criminal lawyer Harvey Silverglate told McCullagh. (…) For numerous reasons, it is imperative that there be serious investigations about what took place here and meaningful consequences for this prosecutorial abuse, at least including firing. It is equally crucial that there be reform of the criminal laws and practices that enable this to take place in so many other cases and contexts. (view Dzhokhar Tsarnaev case…) To begin with, there has been a serious injustice in the Swartz case (resulting in death), and that alone compels accountability. Prosecutors are vested with the extraordinary power to investigate, prosecute, bankrupt, and use the power of the state to imprison people for decades. They have the corresponding obligation to exercise judgment and restraint in how that power is used. When they fail to do so, lives are ruined. Or ended. The US has become a society in which political and financial elites systematically evade accountability for their bad acts, no matter how destructive. Those who torture, illegally evades drop, commit systemic financial fraud, even launder money for designated terrorist and drug dealers are all protected from criminal liability, while those who are powerless. Or especially, as in Swartz’s case, those who challenge power- are mercilessly punished for trivial transgressions. All one has to do to see that this is true is to contrast the incredible leniency given by Ortiz’s office to large companies and executives accused of serious crimes with the indescribably excessive pursuit of Swartz. This immunity for people with power needs to stop. The power of prosecutors is particularly potent, and abuse of that power is consequently devastating. Prosecutorial abuse is widespread in the US, and it’s vital that a strong message be sent that it is not acceptable. Swartz’s family strongly believes –with convincing rationale- that the abuse of this power by Ortiz and Heymann played a key role in the death of their 26-year-old son. It would be unconscionable to decide that this should be simply forgotten. (…) As Swartz’s friend, the NYU professor and Harvard researcher Dana Boyd, described in her superb analysis: “When the federal government went after him –and MIT sheepishly played along- they weren’t treating him as a person who may or may not have done something stupid. He was an example. (…) It was a threat that had nothing to do with justice and everything to do with a broader battle over systemic power.” The grotesque abuse of Bradley Manning. The dangerous efforts to criminalize WikiLeaks’ journalism. Thje severe overkill That drives the effort to apprehended and punish minor protests by Anonymous teenagers while ignoring far more serious cyber-threats aimed at government critics. The Obama administration’s unprecedented persecution of whistle blowers. And now the obscene abuse of power applied to Swartz. (without mention the violations relates to the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev case…) This is not just prosecutorial abuse. It’s broader than that (so that we are not able to reaction before, because doesn’t exist the exact word for call those acts). It’s all part and parcel of the exploitation of law and justice system to entrench those in power and shield themselves from meaningfull dissent and challenge by making everyone petrified of the consequences of doing anything other than meekly submitting to the status quo. (…) In most of what I’ve written and spoken about over the past several years, this is probably the overarching point the abuse of state power, the systematic violation of civil liberties, is about creating a Climate of Fear, (rather terror in this case), one that is geared toward entrenching the power and position of elites by intimidating the rest of society from meaningful challenges and dissent (…) That’s why so much effort is devoted to destroying the ability to use it animously -the Surveillance State- (…) All the statistics are well known at this point. The US imprisons more of its citizens than any other nation in the world, both in absolute numbers and proportionally. Despite having only roughly 5% of the world population, the US has close to 25% of the world’s prisoners in its cages. This is the result of decades of a warped, now-bipartisan obsession with proving “law and order” bona fides by advocating for ever harshder and less forgiving prison terms even for victimless “crimes” (view carjacking “Danny” in the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev case, but also the deaths of at least Krystle Campbell and may be Richard Martin, following the article speaks about the reform of the America’s criminal justice system, saying that “we are locking up too many people sho do not belong in jail.” ). And: “But none of this reform will be possible without holding accountable the prime culprits in this case: Carmen Ortiz and Stephen Heymann (…) Their status as federal prosecutors does not and must not vest them with immunity, the opposite is true: the vast power that has been vested in them requires (proportionally) consequences when it is abused. It is up to the rest of us to ensure that this happens, not to forget the anger ad injustice from this case in a week or a month or a year. A sustained public campaign is necessary to bring real accountability to Ortiz and Heimann, and only then can further urgently needed reforms flow from the tragedy of Swartz’s suicide (in order to avoid in the future similar cases).” (Wednesday 16 January 2013 06:40 EST) the guardian. theguardian /commentisfree/2013/jan/16/Ortiz-heymann-swartz-accountability-abuse?post_id=100004195626999_2225069120976274#_=_) R
Posted on: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 19:36:24 +0000