Submission + - Posthumously pardon Aaron Swartz. (whitehouse.gov)
DevConcepts writes: From a White House, We the people website.
"We petition the Obama administration to:
Posthumously pardon Aaron Swartz.
Aaron Swartz committed suicide on January 11, 2012. He was described by the New York Times as "a wizardly programmer who as a teenager helped to develop code that delivered ever-changing Web content to users and later became a steadfast crusader to make that information freely available."
At the time of his death, Aaron was facing charges which could have led to 35 years in prison. The charges involved Swartz's alleged attempts to download academic articles from JSTOR through the MIT network, despite the fact that JSTOR did not want charges brought.
President Obama has the power to issue a posthumous pardon of Mr. Swartz (even though he was never tried or convicted). Doing so will send a strong message about the improportionality with which he was prosecuted."
"We petition the Obama administration to:
Posthumously pardon Aaron Swartz.
Aaron Swartz committed suicide on January 11, 2012. He was described by the New York Times as "a wizardly programmer who as a teenager helped to develop code that delivered ever-changing Web content to users and later became a steadfast crusader to make that information freely available."
At the time of his death, Aaron was facing charges which could have led to 35 years in prison. The charges involved Swartz's alleged attempts to download academic articles from JSTOR through the MIT network, despite the fact that JSTOR did not want charges brought.
President Obama has the power to issue a posthumous pardon of Mr. Swartz (even though he was never tried or convicted). Doing so will send a strong message about the improportionality with which he was prosecuted."
