We know the prosecution felt a 6-7 year outcome was reasonable for the offenses Swartz committed. We know that outcome is worse than that obtained by members of a carding ring. I agree with you: the carders plead out, and the prosecutors were offering a much more lenient sentence to Swartz for pleading out.
The whole thing is a tragic game of chicken. Both players seem to have been dysfunctional in different ways. But the prosecution wielded far more power. If what we know about the case is the whole story, then any reasonable person looking at this case should have been able to see that a 6 year sentence was an unjust outcome. Unlike most HN'ers, I actually have no problem with plea deals and stern prosecutions for people who go to trial; the system has to work that way unless we fund it differently. But the stern prosecutions need to be hemmed in by reason and fairness and logic. Here, it doesn't seem to have been.
The whole thing is a tragic game of chicken. Both players seem to have been dysfunctional in different ways. But the prosecution wielded far more power. If what we know about the case is the whole story, then any reasonable person looking at this case should have been able to see that a 6 year sentence was an unjust outcome. Unlike most HN'ers, I actually have no problem with plea deals and stern prosecutions for people who go to trial; the system has to work that way unless we fund it differently. But the stern prosecutions need to be hemmed in by reason and fairness and logic. Here, it doesn't seem to have been.