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Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

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Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#71

Post by jacquesm »

andrewtbham wrote: post #54

"unable to appeal openly to us for the financial help he needed to fund his defense, at least without risking the ire of a district court judge." Considering the outcome... Does anyone know an example of what judges do when defendants appeal openly for financial help? Was this really good legal advice?

I suspect - but this pure conjecture on my part, IADNAL and so on - that this may have something to do with prejudicing a potential jury. Any jury member that knows about a case before being sworn in is automatically disqualified. Giving potentially nationwide attention to your case by running a funding drive in your name would pollute any potential jury.

Again, please don't put too much weight on this, it is purely speculative but it is the best I've been able to come up with so far.

A quote on this subject: "One of the most important reasons for not selecting a member of the panel to sit on the jury is prior knowledge of the case."

Source:

http://www.therightjury.com/publications_real_purpose.html

Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#73

Post by irollboozers »

oinksoft wrote: post #40
glhaynes wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why: edw519 could easily and reasonably think that what Aaron did was wrong while being very sad that he committed suicide.

A more cynical observation is that users with high "karma" point totals earn this by parroting the majority opinion or otherwise treating comment threads as a game.

The whole behavior of "tripfags" on 4chan, or /r/circlejerk mirrors how I've seen people go after karma here on HN. I don't like it.

Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#74

Post by monksy »

kyro wrote: post #27
jacquesm wrote: post #18

Here is the HN thread from back then. Some of it makes for pretty uncomfortable reading right now. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4529484

Something particularly bugs me about edw519's comments in the thread you linked to and the recent one about the tragedy -- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047571 . It's an odd contrast.

An unforseen event will make you regret critising [Apple/SteveJobs/Qualcomm/bananas]. In otherwords... stop trying to assign blame to someone for this. We didn't know his intention, nor is anyone directly responsible for it..

It sucks that he killed himself, but its not something you could have prevented unless you were there.

Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#75

Post by kyro »

tptacek wrote: post #68
danem wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is the contrast? edw519's past remarks remain consistent with the one you've linked to in your comment. Expressing the idea that Aaron should be expected take responsibility for his actions does not imply any ill will on edw519's part. Why does this issue have to be made into something so polarizing? With many here, it's either you believe Aaron should've been able to walk away scot-free, or you support an oppr…

Does anyone here who has paid any attention to Ed whatsoever believe he would have written that comment had he known that Aaron had already been financially ruined by an overzealous prosecution that had confronted him with a dilemma of pleading guilty to 13 felonies and spending 6 months in prison or taking a crap-shot at 6-7 years in prison? NOBODY KNEW THESE DETAILS AT THE TIME. Aaron was apparently prevented from…

No, but he did assume he was asking for funds simply because he wasn't manning up. How many hundreds read/upvoted and made the same assumption? He should've held his judgment, especially with the weight he carries around here. I've been reading his comments for years. I know he's a good guy, but I still think it was a stupid comment to make.

Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#76

Post by ameen »

kyro wrote: post #27
jacquesm wrote: post #18

Here is the HN thread from back then. Some of it makes for pretty uncomfortable reading right now. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4529484

Something particularly bugs me about edw519's comments in the thread you linked to and the recent one about the tragedy -- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047571 . It's an odd contrast.

It isn't just Ed's comment that contrasts, most prolific commenters' tone was downright acerbic.

Some calling him to face what he was directly responsible for and some going as far as siding with the prosecution.

Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#77

Post by d0m »

I'm convinced there has to be something bigger than that trial. Trying to rationally explain a suicide by pointing fingers at prosecutor might relief a bit of guilt for some but it's IMO naive. As far as I'm concerned, Aaron committed suicide because he didn't want to live on this planet anymore. He tried so hard to change things, to make the world better. And he actually succeeded, but that probably wasn't enough for a brilliant mind like his. Could it be that he was disgusted at how indifferent people were? By people, I mean most people, not just the governments or some particular entities.
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