rprasad

11 ms·

61.
by rprasad 14y ago
I don't know how much more simply to state this: As a consequence of prosecutorial "discretion" exercised during the jim crow days of the segregated South, federal prosecutors do not have discretion about which laws to prosecute . Once th
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by rprasad 14y ago
I don't have time to go over the several dozen Aaron-related posts or HN threads from today until tomorrow to provide cites, but many of Aaron's posts linked to on HN (including, especially the Batman post) display many signs of severe clin
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by rprasad 14y ago
Robbery is not a federal crime. Train robbery and bank robbery, on the other hand...
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by rprasad 14y ago
Nixon was still alive at the time of his pardon and thus was still in a position to be convicted. There is no precedent for pardoning a dead person who was not convicted of a crime because it is a legal impossibility as described above.
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by rprasad 14y ago
JSTOR does not have the power to direct what others do. If the publisher chooses to restrict a document, JSTOR has no say in that decision--JSTOR is merely a repository . JSTOR has access to essentially every academic article in existenc
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by rprasad 14y ago
Recent change, after the downvote wars this past fall in which Microsoft articles would get unceremoniously downvoted to oblivion the instant they hit the front page. The idea is that articles should rise to the top on their own merits, but
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by rprasad 14y ago
Underground Railroad: people risking their lives to help slaves fleeing slavery, rape, beatings, murder, and the wholesale destruction of their families. Aaron Swartz: releasing academic articles that are already available for free or a low
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by rprasad 14y ago
Prosecutors will always include all possible charges; they have to because of double jeopardy (gross but generally accurate simplification: if they only charge you with one crime for an act and you immediately plead guilty, they cannot char
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by rprasad 14y ago
This proposal is a really bad idea. It over-penalizes acts like Aaron's but underpenalizes heinous acts such as hacking power grids or heart implants.
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by rprasad 14y ago
Text: Propose an Aaron Swartz Act: The purpose of which to limit all computer crime sentences to 1 year maximum and $100,000. This act would provide a sensible maximum penalty for what the government deems "computer crimes." As a society,
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by rprasad 14y ago
Aaron appears to have committed suicide as a result of a mental illness (i.e., clinical depression) which was exacerbated by the criminal case against him. It wasn't the criminal case that killed him; it was his mental illness. The fact th
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by rprasad 14y ago
It was a typo. They meant to say that "People read TechCrunch because they [don't] want to create something."
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by rprasad 14y ago
Until late in 2012, I came out ahead far more by paying down my graduate student loan debt than I did by contributing to my 401(k). However, that is because my graduate student loans are statutorily fixed at 6.5% or higher, whereas market
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by rprasad 14y ago
Basically, he fought for freedom of information to an extent that most other people would not, i.e., he risked committing (what is currently considered) a felony to uphold his principles. In this sense, he was a martyr who didn't just talk
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by rprasad 14y ago
. The United States never should have been a party to this -- it should have been a civil issue between JSTOR, MIT, and Aaron. Except, you know...the fact that Congress passed a law a while ago that made this a crime. This should come u
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by rprasad 14y ago
It depends very strongly on your point of view and the context. I do not consider Aaron Swartz to be very special in the legal sense. His case was a simple hacking case (as the crime is defined in federal statutes). There was nothing speci
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by rprasad 14y ago
Pardon = the defendant is forgiven his crime and released from prison, but the fact of being guilty of the crime remains, i.e., the defendant is forgiven for his bad acts. Amnesty = the defendant is cleared of legal guilt for the crime and
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by rprasad 14y ago
That Slate article doesn't say what you think it says. A pre-emptive pardon can only be issued for someone in danger of being convicted of a crime; it is essentially a grant of immunity. A dead defendant who was merely charged with a crime
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by rprasad 14y ago
No conspiracy, guys. The prosecutor was just doing her job. A simple case like Aaron's probably took up less than 1% of her week. It may have been a big case to Aaron, but compared to their normal cases, it was a relative vacation for the
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by rprasad 14y ago
Zero percent change of happening: you cannot pardon someone who was not adjudicated guilty of a crime (by conviction or by a guilty plea). Aaron died before his case was finally adjudicated (i.e, until all appeals were exhausted), so like
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by rprasad 14y ago
Zero percent chance of this happening: - She did her job, which is to enforce the laws as they are written. - She is very good at doing that job. - You will not get her fired on the basis of enforcing a law on the books where the law has no
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by rprasad 14y ago
Whether Aaron is a "sympathetic" defendant depends strongly on your point of view. All the laws named after little white girls are named after dead little white girls who were the victims of brutal crimes. Aaron is the alleged perpetrator
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by rprasad 14y ago
I don't know how much more clearly I can state this: Most criminal defendants do not kill themselves. It was Aaron's choice to take his life, not hers. Her professional and personal contacts will never agree with you that she hounded some
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by rprasad 14y ago
Federal courts vs normal courts are like the difference between the NBA and high school basketball, or the NFL and college football. Most of the rules are the same, but the game is played at a much higher level and the stakes are higher.
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by rprasad 14y ago
The sole purpose of a grand jury is to determine if there is sufficient evidence that a crime may have been commited to justify an expensive investigation, filing charges, or proceeding to trial (depends on the jurisdiction). The grand ju
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by rprasad 14y ago
All prosecution is political and white collar crimes doubly so. No, all laws are political. Enforcement of the law, especiallly at the federal level, is apolitical. White collar crimes are not special; indeed, white collar crimes are
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by rprasad 14y ago
That's not how politics works. It's never been how politics works. This is why most people simply ignore Silicon Valley and the Internet when it comes to political issues. If the likes of 4chan or reddit attack a federal prosecutor pers
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by rprasad 14y ago
The second petition will never be granted. I can say this with certainty because it is legally impossible to grant a pardon when someone has not been convicted (or plead guilty to) a crime to finality (i.e., the exhaustion of appeals). As w
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by rprasad 14y ago
That's about as realistic as expecting people to dump Aaron by telling them he downloaded a bunch of files without paying for them. It made him a hero. You talk to her friends and family about her, and you'll just make her a hero in thei
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by rprasad 14y ago
Or, you know, you could just call your local Congressperson and complain. This is far more likely to have a direct impact on her job (performance of, or continued employment) than some random internet "naming and shaming." It is also far

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