The U.S. District Attorney of Massachusetts, Carmen Ortiz, defended her office’s prosecution...

and handling this case,” in a statement Wednesday (http://xrl.us/boa897). “The prosecutors recognized that there was no evidence against Mr. Swartz indicating that he committed his acts for personal financial gain, and they recognized that his conduct -- while a violation of the law -- did not warrant the severe punishments authorized by Congress and called for by the sentencing guidelines in appropriate cases.” Swartz was under investigation for his alleged unauthorized downloading of millions of academic articles from JSTOR through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology network. Ortiz said: “At no time did this office ever seek -- or ever tell Mr. Swartz’s attorneys that it intended to seek -- maximum penalties under the law.” The U.S. Attorney’s office was seeking a six-month, low security prison sentence for Swartz which she said was “an appropriate sentence that matched the alleged conduct” and added that Swartz’s defense counsel “would have been free to recommend a sentence of probation.” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., introduced a bill this week aimed at reforming the 27-year-old CFAA and other laws which she said have allowed the government to prosecute individuals under a “dangerous legal interpretation.” Ortiz said “there is little I can say to abate the anger felt by those who believe that this office’s prosecution of Mr. Swartz was unwarranted and somehow led to the tragic result of him taking his own life.” In a recent statement (http://xrl.us/boa4cg), Swartz’s family and partner said his death was “the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach” on the part of the office of the U.S. attorney in Boston -- which “pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges,” including more than 30 years in prison.