Federal prosecutors have dropped 11 of the 13 charges against Barrett Brown

Let&#x27;s stop and contemplate what might have happened, had Brown been forced into submission by these prosecutors <i>prior</i> to this decision. Why do they leave bogus charges sitting out there until just before the trial? Leverage, of course.<p>If there isn&#x27;t some sort of legal standard of fairness involved, there ought to be. The prosecution shouldn&#x27;t be able to fabricate charges against a defendant for the purposes of gaining leverage in pre-trial negotiations. A court <i>can and should</i> take this kind of behavior into account and simply <i>subtract</i> the potential sentences of the &quot;excess&quot; charges away from whatever is left.<p>And sanction the prosecution for...well, something.

He should plead <i>not guilty</i> for the other two, too. People who are obviously persecuted by the government like this (and like Aaron Swartz, etc), should call the prosecutor&#x27;s bluff, and not take the &quot;generous&quot; plea deals they offer after they try to imprison them for decades or a century for trivial things or nonsense charges.