Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison • Hacker News Board

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#141

Post by mordocai » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:02 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #130

smhenderson wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I've been seeing the other comments about that. As I said I'm not 100% up to speed on the details. I'd like to see more evidence that he actually was being convicted of that though and not just that it was a factor in determining sentencing. I don't doubt it's possible he was trying to contract a hit but the stories about the FBI stinging him, etc. make me a bit suspicious.

[deleted]

Too bad it is literally impossible to find out "all the information" on anything, huh? So what level of research is acceptable?

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#142

Post by mindslight » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:02 PM UTC

drcode wrote: post #98

[deleted] wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

I certainly admire your bravery in putting forward such an argument without a throwaway account.

Yes, the thoughtpolice have gotten pretty intense lately. Still, I think he'll be fine on this topic.

BTW, that argument is like Agorism 101.

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#143

Post by Touche » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:02 PM UTC

redwood wrote: post #29

His trailblazing has parallels to Sean Parker. Of course, liberating music was hardly as valuable to society as removing the need for bloodbaths to distribute drugs. But what are you going to do.

He didn't quite remove that need according to prosecution evidence.

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#144

Post by fixermark » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:03 PM UTC

api wrote: post #6

PopsiclePete wrote: post #5

Murderers get less than that. We are truly an interesting society, aren't we - somehow kids doing LSD, a mostly harmless substance, is causing us more harm, as a society, than, say, violence?

If he really did attempt to order a hit on someone, that changes the game a little. Now we're no longer talking about just drugs. But I agree that it's absolutely insane if the charges are just drug-related -- rapists get far less time than many drug dealers.

He wasn't just a drug dealer. The crimes he was charged with are in the massive criminal conspiracy category.

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#145

Post by downandout » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:03 PM UTC

smhenderson wrote: post #13

That seems way too harsh to me. I have strong opinions on the US War on Drugs and it's failure to meaningful deal with drug use/abuse in the USA. And I feel even worse about how it's spilling out into the rest of the world as we go "global" with everything. I can't say I know every detail of the case but I don't recall anyone getting killed or even hurt by Mr. Ulbricht so in my mind the punishment does not fit the cr…

While I also think this is excessive, within the context of the federal sentencing guidelines, this is a proportionate sentence. Because of the amount of drugs involved, along with enhancements for actual or threatened violence during the commission of the crimes and using a computer based "mass-marketing" model to distribute the drugs, the guidelines recommended a sentence of 30 years to Life. Given that there were only aggravating and no mitigating factors, it's easy to see how the judge arrived at life.

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#146

Post by pnut » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:03 PM UTC

Other figures running drug distribution operations at this scale stay physically outside the US and build up paramilitary defense/enforcement. They either face an identical fate to Ross or meet a violent end.

This is not a surprising outcome in any way, and his use of the Internet rather than traditional methods absolves him of nothing.

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#147

Post by imh » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:03 PM UTC

michaelby wrote: post #84

Everyone seems to be looking at this as some sort of travesty of justice. However, there is significant evidence that he tried to order hits on people. While there's no (public) evidence that he successfully murdered anyone, he clearly had lost his regard for human life. We're in a day and age where people can cause tremendous harm to others using their mind alone, without throwing a punch or pulling a trigger. Just…

From other comments, it seems he wasn't tried for that stuff though. I don't think it's a good thing to include considerations in sentencing that he wasn't tried for. If there's evidence he did that, and you want to put him away for a long time because of it, then try him for it!

Punishing him for that without trying him for it seems like punishment without trial, which is bad. The alternative is that this punishment is just for nonviolent stuff, for which it seems excessive.

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#148

Post by Touche » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:03 PM UTC

murbard2 wrote: post #116

dragonwriter wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Gross miscarriage of justice. People have a right to buy drugs. Legally, they do not. If you have a problem with that, take it up with (relevant to the federal laws at issue here) the Congress.

That's very unlikely to work, now what?

Next step is probably not starting a drug empire.

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#149

Post by ratboy666 » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:04 PM UTC

Jyoti Saran had 15,000 customers a week, made 200 million dollars, and was filling 3,000 orders per day.

Sentence? 12 years.

Rick Ross was sentences to life. For 100kg of cocaine. Sentence was reduced to 20 years.

So, we will see what happens to Ulbricht.

My guess is that the life will stick, though. After all, this involved computers.

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#150

Post by Rhapshe » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:04 PM UTC

jjcm wrote: post #24

It's interesting. On one hand, if a leader of a traditional drug distribution network landed a life in prison sentence, I wouldn't have thought twice about it. With Silkroad though, I'm actually convinced by the defendants argument: that it provided safer, more trustworthy drugs to users. I've had friends who've died from purchasing bad drugs at raves from people who were looking to make money and run. In one situati…

Well, I'm glad you're convinced, because I'm certainly not nor does it appear that the judge was either.

"Forrest rejected arguments that Silk Road had reduced harm among drug users by taking illegal activities off the street. “No drug dealer from the Bronx has ever made this argument to the court. It’s a privileged argument and it’s an argument made by one of the privileged,” she said"