Yeah, the prosecution was heavy handed but that completely overlooks the fact that Swartz broke the fucking law and was a total idiot about it.
That completely overlooks the fact that threatening a young man with 35 years in prison is going to put unbearable stress on him
He had - until he took the coward's way out by taking his own life - the constitutional right to a fair trial. He could have defended himself or had an attorney do it for him. It is not uncommon in this country for prosecutors - particularly long before a trial has begun - to suggest that they will shoot for the moon with punishment. However the maximum possible sentence is very rarely handed down.
In the end, though, he knew what he did was illegal. He was never granted access to that wiring closet; the mere fact it was unlocked does not mean he had the right to abuse it. The charges that were going to be brought against him had more to do with the methods he used than the number of papers he was trying to release.
He didn't deserve to die for what he did, or to go to jail for 35 years
Nobody but Aaron Swartz killed Aaron Swartz. Nothing he did was honorable or worthy of being honored.
what basically amounts to civil copyright infringement
No, he did more than just infringe on copyright. His followers try to make it sound as if that was the meat of the charges but that overlooks the more egregious parts of what he did. He opened a closet at the library and connected through there (rather than using the connection in his own office). He then used so much bandwidth in the library that he made it more difficult for other users to access the resources they were there for. The real charges are along the lines of vandalism, disruption, and breaking and entering.