Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by erichocean 4898 days ago
> And similarly, is a prosecutor enforcing a law that society chose to enact inherently evil?

That's not what happened here: society did not enact laws that made his actions illegal, and certainly did not inact punishments to the extent of a felony and 35 years in prison.

This is perhaps the clearest case I've even seen for prosecutorial abuse (excepting situation where the prosecutions literally fabricates evidence). More info here: http://unhandled.com/2013/01/12/the-truth-about-aaron-swartz...

Bottom line: in this case, society is not to blame and no, the prosecutors weren't just "doing their job".