{"id":868,"date":"2014-10-07T14:53:03","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T18:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/?p=868"},"modified":"2014-10-29T11:42:30","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T15:42:30","slug":"ethics-in-hindsight-the-nation-reflects-on-aaron-swartz-case-prosecutorial-discretion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2014\/10\/07\/ethics-in-hindsight-the-nation-reflects-on-aaron-swartz-case-prosecutorial-discretion\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics in Hindsight: The Nation Reflects on Aaron Swartz Case, Prosecutorial Discretion"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Product: Prosecutorial Discretion in Charging and Plea Bargaining: The Aaron Swartz Case (B)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Aaron_Swartz\"

Aaron Swartz<\/p><\/div>\n

The B case, now available, is an epilogue to Part A, the main discussion stimulus. Part A<\/a>\u00a0asks participants to consider the prosecutorial decisions and ethics of Aaron Swartz\u2019s case. Swartz was a 24-year-old Internet prodigy, charged with computer fraud for downloading much of the JSTOR online journal database while on the campus of MIT. The prosecution offered multiple plea bargains, but Swartz refused to plead guilty to any felony counts. Two years went by, with pre-trial negotiations escalating and then reaching a stalemate. Just before Swartz\u2019s trial was slated to begin, Swartz committed suicide.<\/p>\n

B cases can provide resolution, or chronicle the lack thereof. In Part B<\/a>, participants read about how the public and the government reacted to Swartz\u2019s death: Twitter uproar, White House petitions, Congressional hearings, legislation proposals, death threats. The B case also discusses the results of MIT\u2019s internal ethics review.<\/p>\n

The B case is two and a half pages, short enough to distribute and read in class. Educators can ask: How should the government respond to the citizen petitions to dismiss the prosecutors? How does MIT\u2019s review compare to the class\u2019s assessment of the case? What role should named victims play in the process of prosecution? Is legislation the best way to shape the ethics of prosecution?<\/p>\n

Educators may also consider assigning Part B as optional reading after the case is taught in class.<\/p>\n

The Aaron Swartz case is available free of charge on the HLS Case Studies website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Product: Prosecutorial Discretion in Charging and Plea Bargaining: The Aaron Swartz Case (B) The B case, now available, is an epilogue to Part A, the main discussion stimulus. Part A\u00a0asks participants to consider the prosecutorial decisions and ethics of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5482,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[88580],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-case-study-program-blog-posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4CR8M-e0","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":811,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2014\/06\/18\/do-prosecutorial-tactics-optimize-justice-reconsidering-discretion-in-charging-and-plea-bargaining\/","url_meta":{"origin":868,"position":0},"title":"Do Prosecutorial Tactics Optimize Justice? Reconsidering Discretion in Charging and Plea Bargaining","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"June 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"New Product: \u201cProsecutorial Discretion in Charging and Plea Bargaining: The Aaron Swartz Case\u201d In January 2011, an Assistant United States Attorney in Massachusetts\u2019 Internet and Computer Crimes Unit was assigned a case from MIT. For months, a guest on the MIT computer network had been downloading much of the online\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Study Program Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Case Study Program Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/case-study-program-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Aaron_Swartz","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2014\/06\/Aaron_Swartz-500x333.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":857,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2014\/09\/23\/5-questions-with-professor-adriaan-lanni\/","url_meta":{"origin":868,"position":1},"title":"5 Questions with Professor Adriaan Lanni","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"September 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Product: Prosecutorial Discretion in Charging and Plea Bargaining: The Aaron Swartz Case HLS Professor Adriaan Lanni came to us with a vision for her criminal adjudication class: teach students the ethics and discretion of prosecution. Rather than explain landmark examples of prosecutorial discretion herself, Professor Lanni wanted students to find\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Case Study Program Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Case Study Program Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/case-study-program-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lanni","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2014\/09\/Lanni.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1099,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2016\/04\/05\/the-classroom-experience-prosecutorial-discretion-in-charging-and-plea-bargaining-the-aaron-swartz-case-a-and-the-battle-for-unocal-case-studies\/","url_meta":{"origin":868,"position":2},"title":"The Classroom Experience: Prosecutorial Discretion in Charging and Plea Bargaining: The Aaron Swartz Case (A) and The Battle for Unocal Case Studies","author":"Alec Villalpando","date":"April 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Post by Logan Sawyer, Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Harvard Law School \u201cThat class was awesome,\u201d and \u201cYou should definitely do that again next year,\u201d were the first things I heard from students after the two case studies I taught in two different classes, at two different institutions.\u00a0The classes were\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2016\/03\/Singer-4-1024x681.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2016\/03\/Singer-4-1024x681.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2016\/03\/Singer-4-1024x681.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":963,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2015\/04\/28\/can-we-have-justice-in-an-imperfect-world-dsk-case-study-shows-fractured-relationship-between-justice-and-justice-system\/","url_meta":{"origin":868,"position":3},"title":"Can We Have Justice in an Imperfect World? DSK Case Study Shows Fractured Relationship between Justice and Justice System","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"April 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Product: \u201cCyrus Vance and Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Dilemmas in a High-Profile Prosecution\u201d HLS Professor Jeannie Suk repurposed a discussion-based case study, \u201cCyrus Vance and Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Dilemmas in a High-Profile Prosecution,\u201d to explore the disconnect between justice and the justice system in a foundational 1L course. In her two sections of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Professor Jeannie Suk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2015\/04\/10869.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":554,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2013\/09\/17\/the-boy-who-cried-balloon\/","url_meta":{"origin":868,"position":4},"title":"The Boy Who Cried Balloon","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"September 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"New Product: Balloon Boy On October 15, 2009, Richard and Mayumi Heene called 911 in a panic. Their son Falcon had gone missing, as had a large metallic helium balloon housed in their backyard. Local and federal authorities conducted a highly publicized rescue effort for the \u201cUFO,\u201d but when the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Problem Solving Workshop Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Problem Solving Workshop Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/problem-solving-workshop-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":828,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/2014\/07\/15\/3-new-teaching-notes-available-in-time-for-fall-classes\/","url_meta":{"origin":868,"position":5},"title":"3 New Teaching Notes Available, In Time for Fall Classes","author":"Elizabeth Moroney","date":"July 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Looking to teach decision making, leadership, copyright, or problem solving this fall? We just released three new teaching notes, free for educators, for-profit trainers, and staff at non-profit or educational institutions: Reputation, Credibility, and the Goldstone Report (A) and (B), a discussion-based case study from Professor Philip Heymann, teaches students\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Problem Solving Workshop Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Problem Solving Workshop Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/category\/problem-solving-workshop-blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Richard Goldstone","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/files\/2013\/05\/800px-P10107961-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5482"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions\/873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/hlscasestudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}