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Comment by jmvoodoo | Hacker News Reader

This type of behavior makes me wonder what the incentive structure is (both financially and socially) for these prosecutors? IMO that's what needs to change if we are going to have any sort of real justice in the future. Going after individuals might make us feel better for a little while, but it won't save the next Aaron Schwartz from the same fate.

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Federal prosecutors are appointed politically and are political figures. This can sometimes be a good thing because they can be more accountable than a faceless bureaucrat—maybe this prosecutor won’t win her next election because of this—and because they might be more likely to reflect society’s values. For example a prosecutor can decide to be more lenient in some nonviolent drug cases: the police has to investigate and the judge has to convict, but a prosecutor has the discretion to just drop the case. Of course in Aaron’s case we see the dark side of the political nature of US attorneys.

Fans of The West Wing may remember this quote from Robert Jackson:

“The prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America. His discretion is tremendous. He can have citizens investigated and, if he is that kind of person, he can have this done to the tune of public statements and veiled or unveiled intimations. Or the prosecutor may choose a more subtle course and simply have a citizen’s friends interviewed. … While the prosecutor at his best is one of the most beneficent forces in our society, when he acts from malice or other base motives, he is one of the worst.

“Your positions are of such independence and importance that while you are being diligent, strict, and vigorous in law enforcement you can also afford to be just. Although the government technically loses its case, it has really won if justice has been done.”

http://www.roberthjackson.org/the-man/speeches-articles/spee...

Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. A career ending for one overzealous prosecutor would signal an important feature of the incentive structure. Wars are won one battle at a time.

Prosecutors are self-selected to be zealous defenders of the rule of law as it is written. (Quite frequently, people who believe in the rule of law as it is intended choose to go into defense work.)

Thus, they need no financial or social incentives; the work itself is their incenctive, much in the same way that tackling a hard programming program is incentive in itself for a talanted programmer.

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