I would like to see the money go to Aaron's parents, Robert and Susan Swartz, in his memory. I believe they expended a tremendous amount financially in the legal fight for Aaron. It would seem fitting to extract some small measure of remuneration from MIT for their complicitness via this award.
When they involved the police, they had no idea who it was that was apparently attacking them. They just knew that an unknown party was causing serious disruptions, and was actively trying to evade their countermeasures, and had moved on to trespassing and equipment tampering.
It was only after Swartz was arrested that his identity became known.
Everything after that was in the hands of prosecutors. MIT did tell prosecutors that MIT did not advocate jail time for Swartz.
