U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz is known for her rabid, often overdone, aggression toward defendants. Of recent infamy for her overzealous treatment of the would-be prosecution of Reddit co-founder and suspected hacker Aaron Swartz, who was found hanging dead in his Brooklyn apartment earlier this year.
Ortiz wanted to give Swartz up to 35 years of imprisonment for online pirating and distribution of academic journals.
Ortiz not only wanted to throw the book at Swartz, she wanted to bludgeon him with it and shove it down his non-violent throat.
Although the preceding gave Ortiz a savage reputation, her overzealous, almost drunken-gunslinger, approach to justice could very well lead to a misunderstanding of suspects like Dzokhar Tsarnaev. By understanding Tsarnaev, law enforcement could be better positioned to deal with, or even prevent, atrocities like what took place in Boston last week.
However, Tsarnaev has very serious charges against him and being convicted of these charges may get Tsarnaev sentenced to death.
Now before this flares into a death penalty debate, remember, Tsarnaev and his late brother Tamerlan are accused of detonating bombs and killing three and injuring many more last Monday in Boston.
With that said, if Tsarnaev is proven to be guilty, he should be placed at the full mercy of the United States judicial system and Ortiz, as her record indicates, will make sure that happens.
Joshua De Leon is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire.
