

Federal prosecutors have dropped 11 of the 13 charges against Barrett Brown - hornokplease
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/03/eff-statement-dismissal-11-charges-against-barrett-brown

======
rossjudson
Let's stop and contemplate what might have happened, had Brown been forced
into submission by these prosecutors _prior_ to this decision. Why do they
leave bogus charges sitting out there until just before the trial? Leverage,
of course.

If there isn't some sort of legal standard of fairness involved, there ought
to be. The prosecution shouldn't be able to fabricate charges against a
defendant for the purposes of gaining leverage in pre-trial negotiations. A
court _can and should_ take this kind of behavior into account and simply
_subtract_ the potential sentences of the "excess" charges away from whatever
is left.

And sanction the prosecution for...well, something.

------
higherpurpose
He should plead _not guilty_ for the other two, too. People who are obviously
persecuted by the government like this (and like Aaron Swartz, etc), should
call the prosecutor's bluff, and not take the "generous" plea deals they offer
after they try to imprison them for decades or a century for trivial things or
nonsense charges.

