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Unsealed Transcript Shows How a Judge Justified Ross Ulbricht's Life Sentence

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Re: Unsealed Transcript Shows How a Judge Justified Ross Ulbricht's Life Sentence

#51
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was absolutely no testimony from Carl Mark Force or Shawn Bridges during the trial... Everyone involved (Judge, Defense, Prosecution) knew that charges against the two corrupt agents were coming down the line but they were directed to not mention it since the judge deemed that DEA completed their investigation completely independently of evidence gathered by the two. This is one of the reasons Ulbricht's lawyer…

>This is why they only accused Ross of 5 hits instead of 6 (The 6th was the one setup by the corrupt agents). man, we're in different Universes. They dropped 5 charges out of 6 and the 6th has made it only as far as an indictment (in Maryland) completely based on the Force's testimony. And that indictment was used as the reason to deny bail and poisoned the rest of the trial.

Again, from the judge in very article that's linked above, straight from his guilty conviction and subsequent sentencing:

    I find that there is ample and unambiguous evidence that
    Ulbricht commissioned five murders as part of his 
    efforts to protect his criminal enterprise and that he paid
    for these murders. There is no evidence that he was 
    role-playing.
He wasn't charged and convicted of 5 attempted murders, his guilty sentence for running a continuing criminal enterprise was modified based on the preponderance of evidence that he attempted to have 5 people killed. It's 5, not 6 due to the corrupt FBI / SS agents.

Re: Unsealed Transcript Shows How a Judge Justified Ross Ulbricht's Life Sentence

#52
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is why they only accused Ross of 5 hits instead of 6 (The 6th was the one setup by the corrupt agents). man, we're in different Universes. They dropped 5 charges out of 6 and the 6th has made it only as far as an indictment (in Maryland) completely based on the Force's testimony. And that indictment was used as the reason to deny bail and poisoned the rest of the trial.

Again, from the judge in very article that's linked above, straight from his guilty conviction and subsequent sentencing: I find that there is ample and unambiguous evidence that Ulbricht commissioned five murders as part of his efforts to protect his criminal enterprise and that he paid for these murders. There is no evidence that he was role-playing. He wasn't charged and convicted of 5 attempted murders, his guilt…

>He wasn't charged and convicted of 5 attempted murders, his guilty sentence for running a continuing criminal enterprise was modified based on the preponderance of evidence that he attempted to have 5 people killed. It's 5, not 6 due to the corrupt FBI / SS agents.

the 5 had only chat logs as "evidence". The 6th had chat logs and the Force's testimony. This is why the 5 have never made it anywhere in the proper court procedure - they even didn't made it as far as formal charge, and the 6th stuck at the indictment once the Force's corruption became known. The 5, ie. the chat logs, chronoligacally appeared after the Force's one.

Re: Unsealed Transcript Shows How a Judge Justified Ross Ulbricht's Life Sentence

#53
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, from the judge in very article that's linked above, straight from his guilty conviction and subsequent sentencing: I find that there is ample and unambiguous evidence that Ulbricht commissioned five murders as part of his efforts to protect his criminal enterprise and that he paid for these murders. There is no evidence that he was role-playing. He wasn't charged and convicted of 5 attempted murders, his guilt…

>He wasn't charged and convicted of 5 attempted murders, his guilty sentence for running a continuing criminal enterprise was modified based on the preponderance of evidence that he attempted to have 5 people killed. It's 5, not 6 due to the corrupt FBI / SS agents. the 5 had only chat logs as "evidence". The 6th had chat logs and the Force's testimony. This is why the 5 have never made it anywhere in the proper cour…

> the 5 had only chat logs as "evidence".

Chat logs and of course the payments, from wallets known to be controlled by Ross, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars that correspond precisely with the chat logs.

From the judge again;

    He commissioned the hits, there is no discussion of
    hypotheticals, he paid actual funds. He paid hundreds
    of thousands of dollars which were, in fact, paid. He is 
    told when the murders are completed, he was provided
    with a photo of the murder scene with random numbers
    that he had provided to the would-be assassins. That
    there had been no confirmation of any of the deaths
    does not eliminate the fact that he directed violence
    and directed the use of violence.

Re: Unsealed Transcript Shows How a Judge Justified Ross Ulbricht's Life Sentence

#54

It's terrible that we are doing this to someone who probably would have learned their lesson with only 5-10 years of prison and been able to return to society. He had the potential to return as a productive member of society and now instead he will be a lifelong debt all for assisting in the sale of drugs that people willingly purchased knowing the risk of death from those drugs. He's no saint but this punishment is…

He would've came out and just tried again. Pretty much every single case of white-collar crime or crimes like this have a repeat offense. Not to mention his site also gave a venue to hire hitmen. Also, the FBI is probably going to end up using him as a asset tbh.

Re: Unsealed Transcript Shows How a Judge Justified Ross Ulbricht's Life Sentence

#55
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simply for running a drug market, with no additional criminal conduct? Just the nuts-and-bolts of running the site, setting up Tor, taking money, that kind of stuff? 1-2 years seems about right. You think about the very low barrier to starting a site like that up, and then you think about the kind of person likely to stumble into that scheme, and then what it would take to deter them and others from trying it, and it…

hmm running a drugs market is a criminal conspiracy so I'd imagine a high number for that alone, quite apart from the deaths of users. not sure if his defence team were more inept or desperate from the article

I understood the question to be "what's a sentence you can defend from first principles". In fact, the deaths of Silk Road drug users played a huge role in his sentence.

Re: Unsealed Transcript Shows How a Judge Justified Ross Ulbricht's Life Sentence

#56
post #40
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're right there in the indictment! Also, this article summarizes a transcript of the sentencing hearing. The judge discusses this at length in the transcript. Read the indictment! Read the transcript! It's interesting stuff, and you don't have to get all your info second- and third-hand!

yes, like in the previously available court documents (like the Maryland indictment which was basis for the prosecutors to mention the charges) pretty much everything about the murders comes from those agents (actually mainly from the one of them). The transcript doesn't contain anything to add to the previously available documents, it just basically summarizes and mentions what has been already stated elsewhere.

No, this is not the case, and is in fact something you can only say if you haven't read the transcript of the sentencing hearing.

Re: Unsealed Transcript Shows How a Judge Justified Ross Ulbricht's Life Sentence

#57
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>He wasn't charged and convicted of 5 attempted murders, his guilty sentence for running a continuing criminal enterprise was modified based on the preponderance of evidence that he attempted to have 5 people killed. It's 5, not 6 due to the corrupt FBI / SS agents. the 5 had only chat logs as "evidence". The 6th had chat logs and the Force's testimony. This is why the 5 have never made it anywhere in the proper cour…

> the 5 had only chat logs as "evidence". Chat logs and of course the payments, from wallets known to be controlled by Ross, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars that correspond precisely with the chat logs. From the judge again; He commissioned the hits, there is no discussion of hypotheticals, he paid actual funds. He paid hundreds of thousands of dollars which were, in fact, paid. He is told when the murders…

the similarity between Force's setup and these ones is just striking. That crap would never pass a jury and probably many of judges would kick it out too. No wonder that these cases don't even have a status of formal charges.

The judge dealt Ulbricht additional punishment just on the base of preponderance of evidence as seen by the judge. Thus effectively punishing Ulbricht for the alleged crimes of murder-for-hire. Such loophole is a clear violation of :

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury,..."

and

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury ..."

Ulbricht wasn't indicted, nor prosecuted, nor convicted by a jury for these 5 alleged murder-for-hires. Thus he can't be punished for them. Whether he actually did it or not, what happened in those proceedings isn't a justice.

Re: Unsealed Transcript Shows How a Judge Justified Ross Ulbricht's Life Sentence

#58

Judge> It was a world of laws that you created, they were your laws. It is fictional to think of Silk Road as some place of freedom. Ouch, terrible strawman; freedom doesn't mean freedom from all laws. It does entail freedom from some unreasonable laws.

Who defines 'unreasonable'?

Re: Unsealed Transcript Shows How a Judge Justified Ross Ulbricht's Life Sentence

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except he didn't sell drugs at all. He ran a marketplace.

Untrue.. The first several pounds of shrooms on the Silk Road were grown and sold by Ulbricht. He claims credit for "Several Kilograms" in his diary.. Several kilos is well into the tens of thousands of dollars range.. http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-the-fbi-found-on-r...

I can understand the harm of opiates and stimulants, but are psychedelics really that damaging to society? And if he grew them himself it wasn't contributing to harmful suppliers...

Re: Unsealed Transcript Shows How a Judge Justified Ross Ulbricht's Life Sentence

#60
post #33

It's terrible that we are doing this to someone who probably would have learned their lesson with only 5-10 years of prison and been able to return to society. He had the potential to return as a productive member of society and now instead he will be a lifelong debt all for assisting in the sale of drugs that people willingly purchased knowing the risk of death from those drugs. He's no saint but this punishment is…

I think the judge addressed that issue. >"No drug dealer from the Bronx selling meth or heroin or crack has ever made these kinds of arguments to the Court. It is a privileged argument, it is an argument from one of privilege. You are no better a person than any other drug dealer and your education does not give you a special place of privilege in our criminal justice system. It makes it less explicable why you did w…

>You can argue that our drug laws are wrong or the punishments are too extreme, but singling out Ulbrich for the specifics ways in which he clearly and repeatedly violated those laws is showing favoritism. If his crimes didn't involve the Internet, there would be nothing newsworthy about his arrest and sentencing.

Seriously?

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE SPECIFICS. Accidentally beat someone to death in a fight you started and you might serve a decade or two. Beat them to death for fun, eat their heart, feed the rest to a dog and light their house on fire while you're at it and you'll likely serve life. Both are 1st degree murder but that's about where the similarity ends.

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