What I've only seen mentioned once is that he also once wrote an article claiming that gay isn't a valid orientation or identity (he was bisexual and, obviously, had serious issues with it.) He compared it to being predominantly attracted to white people, for instance. Ironic that he would kill himself after so callously writing off so many gay kids who are 4 to 8 times more likely to attempt suicide.

I should mention that the article was titled "Why I am not gay." He had at least two serious (include his most recent) romantic relationships with women. Maybe not actually being gay had something to do with it instead of self hating philosophical hocus pocus.

This poor guy had suicidal ideation for years. It's probably easier and an effective coping mechanism for the family to point the blame to ~the government~.

I think it is a stretch to blame her for the suicide, there are millions of people facing prosecution in this country on trumped up charges or for crimes they may or may not have committed and they don’t take their own life. Seems to be clearly other factors here. 

@4,

Speaking as someone has has faced prosecution on trumped-up charges, let me tell you something: there is nothing more toxic to one's faith in a just society than being prosecuted by people whom you know are aware of, and indifferent to, your own innocence.

And all I faced was a chickenshit obstructing charge brought by Tom Carr in a counterproductive attempt to cover the asses of some city employees. It was a far, far fucking cry from being made a conspicuous example of what federal prosecutors will do, with the tiniest shred of culpability, to an Anonymous sympathizer who is plugged into the Cambridge hacktivist scene.

What Swartz was alleged to have done is the virtual equivalent of walking into a pay-what-you-can fundraiser and then pigging out on their buffet spread. He logged onto a network whose policy is expressly to be free and open, and used it to download, somewhat gluttonously, several million academic articles which were otherwise free for the taking by users of that same network.

(Never mind, by the way, that these articles were the product of publicly-subsidized research institutions.)

The same way you don't send a man to Alcatraz for stealing a loaf of bread (-- especially when, as here, prosecutors themselves allege that he stole that loaf for the benefit of someone other than himself --) you don't play fifty-plus year federal felony hardball with a decent, productive person who has singlehandedly done more good for the internet in his short life than your average Microsoft, or Google, or Apple employee does in an entire career.

And once you've forced him to exhaust his life's savings defending himself, it's no excuse to say, as Ortiz' husband Thomas Nolan has, "all he had to do was plead guilty, spend six months in jail and be branded a felon and the whole ordeal could have been over."

For all this, Carmen Ortiz and Stephen Heymann should be removed from office and held in contempt by everyone in this country with a proportionate sense of justice.

1, uh, maybe no one mentions it because it's rather irrelevant.

Gee, a 20-something is having issues w/ their sexual identity. That never happens! It must be the key to everything!

Aren't we all in some sense killed by the government?

@5: Netiquette be damned, this is the first me-too comment I've ever posted, anywhere. Hear, fucking, hear.

That for which Aaron Swartz was indicted is something the most law-abiding and cautious of us do regularly: http://erratasec.blogspot.com/2013/01/i-…

@7 How the fuck is it not relevant? It's relevant first as insight into what happened and second as evidence that he's not the all singing all dancing crap of the world. If a pastor or republican politician had written,the article (sans confessions of their own same sex activity) it certainly would be noted on Slog and the gay blogs that wrote about the suicide and derided as homophobic and anti gay.

Damn, some of you are real soulless fuckers devoid of empathy.

@5 Well said.

@6,

Since you seem to need a little help in the reading comprehension department, I'll clarify:

I blame Ortiz and Heymann for their prosecutorial decisions, not for Swartz' suicide. Swartz killed himself, I hope as a conscious act of protest, against the indefensibly unjust acts of these brazenly irresponsible prosecutors.

@4: We aren't claiming that Ortiz and Heymann murdered him. All we are saying is that when Swartz was on the ledge, Ortiz and Heymann thought it would be fun to poke him in the back with a stick over and over again telling him "your life is over".

@4 (continued): And maybe they poured a little grease on the ledge to make it a little more slippery. Then they told him that if he came off he would be spending decades in jail. Oh, and Heymann really loved to ram up the stress by repeatedly warning that any delay to take a plea deal would make the plea deal worse.