Carmen Ortiz, the US Attorney in Massachusetts, is leaving. I am glad she is leaving, but she should never have been appointed or confirmed. She should have been fired in January 2013, after she and her henchman Steven Heymann caused the death of Internet activist Aaron Schwartz through extreme over prosecution of a “crime” that was at most civil disobedience.
Here’s what I wrote at the time:
http://larry.stewart.org/2013/01/13/aaron-swartz/
Here’s what the Guardian had to say:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/16/ortiz-heymann-swartz-accountability-abuse
Ms Ortiz now says (quoted in the Boston Globe here: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/12/21/attorney-carmen-ortiz-announces-resignation/fV7IJmesqOU8SEYd1pylEO/story.html )
“I feel tremendous sorrow for what his family has gone through,” Ortiz said Wednesday.
“I regret I wasn’t able to identify that situation early on and we didn’t have that opportunity to have that go on a different path because a young man at the end of the day did lose his life.”
I am hopeful that Ms Ortiz will never be in a position again to cause the death of another shining star, or indeed anyone. As US Attorney, she was much more interested in personal power and headlines than justice. US Attorneys have little oversight and no accountability and many of them are not up to the job. Carmen Ortiz was one. For myself, I will not forgive or forget her actions.
She will be moving on, but Aaron Schwartz is still dead.