Excesses of federal prosecution

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• Aaron Swartz
  At 26-years-old Swartz hung himself two months ahead of a trial for which he faced an array of charges carrying possible sentences of over 35 years in prison. The gifted technologist had downloaded 4.8 million academic files from JSTOR but had no intention to profit from the material. His family and partner have publicly blamed the criminal justice system and prosecutorial overreach for his death.
  
• Daniel McGowan
  McGowan, an environmental activist, pled guilty to federal terrorism charges in 2006 relating to the 2001 arson of an Oregon lumber company. Despite no one being injured, McGowan faced a minimum life sentence if convicted at trial and instead opted for a plea deal in which he was sentenced to seven years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.9 million in restitution. Another activist arrested for the arson committed suicide in an Arizona prison cell.
  
• Northwest grand jury resistors
  In 2012 four anarchists -- Matt Duran, Kteeo Olejnik, Leah Lynn Plante and Maddy Pfeiffer -- were incarcerated without charges for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury believed to be investigating property damage in Seattle last May Day. Plante was released from custody for unknown reasons, but the other three resistors remain behind bars and have numerous times been put into solitary confinement, according to letters from Olejnik. (Image via NoPoliticalRepression.wordpress.com)
  
• Matt Davies
  Davies is among a handful of victims in the conflict between federal and state governments over marijuana laws. The 34-year-old father of two young daughters with no criminal record could face 10 years to life in federal prison for charges relating to his small business providing the medical marijuana in California, which he operated legally under state law. (Image via KeepMattFree.org)
  
• Marie Mason
  Eco-activist Mason is three years into a 22-year sentence for domestic terror charges relating to arson and property damage aimed toward targets in the fur industry and genetically modified crop research. Mason's lawyer called 22 years an "excessively harsh" sentence, even for serial arson, in which no individuals were injured or killed.
  
• Eric McDavid
  McDavid was sentenced to 20 years in 2008 for conspiring to use fire or explosives to damage corporate and government property. McDavid, along with a small group of eco-activists infiltrated by an FBI informant, allegedly planned to sabotage the Nimbus Dam and other targets considered threatening to the environment. McDavid's defense continues to claim entrapment by the FBI.
  
• Eric McDavid
  Four extremely poor, black Muslim men -- James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen -- were arrested in 2009 in connection with a plot to shoot down military airplanes flying out of an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, New York and blow up two synagogues. They are each serving a 25 year sentence in federal prison. A number of groups including the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University have publicly argued that the FBI entrapped the four men. The Guardian's Paul Harris wrote, "the four men were impoverished individuals struggling with Newburgh's grim epidemic of crack, drug crime and poverty. One had mental issues so severe his apartment contained bottles of his own urine. He also believed Florida was a foreign country."
  
• Yassin Aref
  In 2007 Aref was sentenced to 15 years in prison for conspiring to aid a terrorist group and provide support for a weapon of mass destruction, as well as money-laundering and supporting a foreign terrorist organization. Aref's appeal, brought by the NYCLU is pending. The civil liberties advocates charge that Aref was entrapped and that his constitutional rights were violated by the FBI's use of warrantless wiretaps.
  
• Jeremy Hammond
  Hacktivist Jeremy Hammond has been held for eight months without bail in a Manhattan federal prison ahead of a pending trial. He could face life in jail for his alleged involvement with the Anonymous/LulzSec hack into the computers of the private intelligence firm Stratfor. The federal judge who denied Hammond bail is married to a client of Stratfor and was personally affected by the infamous hack. Hammond's lawyers filed a a motion for the judge’s recusal from the case. (Image via Jim Newberry/JimNewberry.com)
  

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