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Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

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Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#551

Post by contravariant »

lbriner wrote: post #537

Someone might have already pointed it out but for me, the sentence of RA is not the main issue, the issue is allowing a single person to stamp through an entire legal system and undermine all of the time and money that is invested in it, even if that person is a president. I suspect that the idea originally was to give some safety valve but if it is used more than a few times by a President, it makes a mockery of it…

The main failure here is the failure of the elections system to elect anyone reasonable.

On its own it is not that bad an idea for someone who carries a mandate of the majority of the population to be able to grant pardons.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#552

Post by chrishare »

kybernetyk wrote: post #547
zanek wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills reading the comments on this thread. Multiple teenagers (one in Australia) died from the drugs distributed on Silk Road. Ross was ok with selling grenades, body parts, etc on there. But everyone is saying he served his time ???

Smart people can differentiate between a market place and the sellers themselves.

He tried to have people murdered for his own benefit.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#554

Post by tene80i »

kybernetyk wrote: post #547
zanek wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills reading the comments on this thread. Multiple teenagers (one in Australia) died from the drugs distributed on Silk Road. Ross was ok with selling grenades, body parts, etc on there. But everyone is saying he served his time ???

Smart people can differentiate between a market place and the sellers themselves.

Do these smart people you speak of think things that are different are entirely unrelated?

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#555

Post by nurumaik »

zanek wrote: post #327
steve_avery wrote: post #55

Well, I think that justice has been served. The feds' prosecution of Ulbricht was the epitome of throwing the book at someone to make an example, when the government's case was pretty flawed, in my opinion. 10 years is enough time to pay the debt of running the silk road. I am glad that Ulbricht has been pardoned and I feel like a small iota of justice has been returned to the world with this action.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills reading the comments on this thread. Multiple teenagers (one in Australia) died from the drugs distributed on Silk Road. Ross was ok with selling grenades, body parts, etc on there. But everyone is saying he served his time ???

Idk about silk road, but hydra (russian online marketplace) was the best thing that happened to russia drug market. It had very good reputation system and even labs that did random testing of drugs being sold

Existence of big marketplaces definitely lower chances of people dying from drugs

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#556

Post by Aeolun »

highwaylights wrote: post #511
rappatic wrote: post #164

I think his original sentence was absolutely deserved—even though the charge of hiring a contract killer to assassinate his business competition may have been dropped, I think it's clear he did many things in the same vein. Even if you support his original pursuit of a free and open online marketplace, I think most people would agree he took it a bridge too far in the end. That said, I do think he absolutely deserved…

I don’t see why he deserves to be released. So many people are in jail for crimes they didn’t commit, or for non-violent offenses that were committed out of hardship and a need to eat. They gave evidence he tried to have someone killed, and that he saw confirmation it had been done. Even if the accusation is somehow false and he didn’t order that killing, how many people did he actually kill just by running Silk Road…

He didn’t deserve to be imprisoned that long in the first place, ergo, he deserves to be released. The fact that nearly half the US prison population deserves to be released doesn’t change anything about this guy being deserving too?

People generally don’t get locked up for life even if they do kill someone (in civilized countries), as long as they can be rehabilitated.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#557

Post by suddenlybananas »

zanek wrote: post #327
steve_avery wrote: post #55

Well, I think that justice has been served. The feds' prosecution of Ulbricht was the epitome of throwing the book at someone to make an example, when the government's case was pretty flawed, in my opinion. 10 years is enough time to pay the debt of running the silk road. I am glad that Ulbricht has been pardoned and I feel like a small iota of justice has been returned to the world with this action.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills reading the comments on this thread. Multiple teenagers (one in Australia) died from the drugs distributed on Silk Road. Ross was ok with selling grenades, body parts, etc on there. But everyone is saying he served his time ???

You have to understand that half of the people here are libertarians who never grew out of their teenage philosophy.

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#559

Post by JumpCrisscross »

We need pardon reform.

I’d argue the President should not be allowed to issue pardons that are:

(1) Preëmptive (i.e. absent conviction);

(2) To himself, his current or former Cabinet members, or to any of the foregoing’s current or former spouses or children or grandchildren (or their spouses); or

(3) Issued after the presidential election in the final year of their term.

Furthermore, pardons for violent offences or corruption should be prohibited; provided, however, the President should retain the power to commute such sentences, and the Congress should have the power to regulate the manner in which the President may commute such sentences.

(Notably, I don’t believe this would apply to Ulbricht. He wasn’t convicted of a violent crime.)

Re: Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon

#560

Post by pineaux »

siamese_puff wrote: post #454
wolfgang42 wrote: post #173

Tangentially related: I had the disconcerting experience of reading a Wired article about his arrest[1] while unknowingly sitting about six feet from the spot where he was apprehended. When I read that the FBI agents had stopped at Bello Coffee while preparing their stakeout, I thought, huh, interesting coincidence, I just had a coffee there. Then Ulbricht walked into the public library and sat down at the table dire…

I understood exactly what you meant and that is an awesome experience

Yes
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