BEHIND BLONDIE PARK

Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, the roommate and  girlfriend of  Aaron Swartz,  gives  her first interview in which she recalls the final hours she spent the  Reddit co-founder before he took his own life on January 11, 2013.

Stinebrickner-Kauffman, the Executive Director of corporate watchdog SumOfUs insists Swartz, 26,  was driven to suicide by a ‘vindictive’ legal system.  She  claimed that the U.S. legal system   mercilessly hounded him to his death after he was charged with illegally downloading millions of files from MIT.  

She described the technology wizard as “in many ways ‘an adolescent boy’” who was ultimately destroyed by the felony charge that convinced him he had no future.

Swartz , a computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist was found hanged in his Crown Heights, Brooklyn apartment. 

On January 6, 2011, Swartz was arrested by federal authorities in connection with systematic downloading of academic journal articles from JSTOR  in January 2009.

In September 2011…he was charged  with wire fraud, computer fraud and unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer after he allegedly tried to steal millions of scholarly papers.

Swartz thought he faced up to 35 years in jail.

Following his death a statement was issued by his family in which they criticized the criticizing the U.S. Attorney’s office, and MIT:  Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy, it is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death.

SumOfUs.org is a global movement of consumers, investors, and workers all around the world, standing together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable and just path for our global economy.

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SumOfUs.org is a global movement of consumers, investors, and workers all around the world, standing together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable and just path for a global economy.

Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, Executive Director and Founder – Taren is a dual Australian-American citizen. She has experience with online organizing on four continents and at the global level, including at Avaaz.org, GetUp.org.au, and the AFL-CIO. She was born in Australia, currently lives in New York Cit.