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Aaron Swartz’s Father Tells Funeral-Goers Son “Killed by Government”

HeadlineJan 16, 2013

The late Internet freedom activist Aaron Swartz was laid to rest on Tuesday at a funeral near Chicago. Swartz killed himself on Friday, weeks before he was to go to trial for downloading millions of articles provided by the nonprofit research service JSTOR. He was facing 35 years in prison, a penalty that supporters of Swartz called excessively harsh. Speaking to mourners, Swartz’s father, Robert Swartz, continued to blame prosecutors for his son’s death, saying he was “killed by the government.” In response to the family, the husband of prosecutor Carmen Ortiz has publicly criticized them on Twitter, claiming Swartz was offered a six-month plea deal. The husband, IBM executive Tom Dolan, has since deleted his Twitter profile.

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