After fighting for five years, the Silk Road founder, Ross Ulbricht, lost his life sentence appeal. On Wednesday, a Second Circuit appellate court rejected it.
Two years ago, Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison without parole for creating and running the Silk Road, a massive internet market where users could buy and sell things online anonymously; including illegal drugs. During his time running the website, Ulbricht was known as Dread Pirate Roberts. The excessively harsh nature of Ulbricht’s sentence has been the cornerstone of the entire debacle. Ulbricht was a non-violent criminal, yet received the sentence of life behind bars.
He and his lawyers pointed to what they described as illegal searches in the investigation and the involvement of at least two federal agents now proven to be corrupt. But it didn’t make a difference to the three-judge appellate panel. With critiques of American drug laws sprinkled in, the court made their decision to keep Ulbricht locked up for the rest of his life.
“Reasonable people may and do disagree about the social utility of harsh sentences for the distribution of controlled substances, or even of criminal prohibition of their sale and use at all. It is very possible that, at some future point, we will come to regard these policies as tragic mistakes and adopt less punitive and more effective methods of reducing the incidence and costs of drug use. At this point in our history, however, the democratically-elected representatives of the people have opted for a policy of prohibition, backed by severe punishment,” the judges write.
That’s a least a big change compared to what Ulbricht was told by the prosecution who was able to convince the judge to sentence him to life in prison. She went above and beyond what the prosecution had even asked for when sentencing The Dread Pirate Roberts. The prosecution said:
“Ulbricht did not merely commit a serious crime in his own right. He developed a blueprint for a new way to use the internet to undermine the law and facilitate criminal transactions. Using that blueprint, others have followed in Ulbricht’s footsteps, establishing new ‘dark markets’ in the mold of Silk Road, some selling an even broader range of illicit goods and services than Silk Road itself.”
Ulbricht and his lawyers attempted to argue that the involvement of two now-convicted, corrupt federal agents, deterred the original investigation. Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin from the Silk Road and DEA agent Carl Mark Force attempted to extort Ulbricht and even sold him secret information from the Silk Road investigation. Ulbricht’s lawyers argued that both agents influenced the Silk Road investigation, and at times had access to the Silk Road servers that could have been used to frame their client.
The judge disagreed. The Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit upheld his sentence of life in prison without parole.
Had he RAPED and SOLD children he would be free right now. He should have offered those judges children to rape, then he would have gone free like the rest of the DC pigs…..OR he should have engaged the Bush family, they are the top dogs in drug running! God’s judgement on this sick nation can not come soon enough!!! The rule of man must be STOPPED! They suck at ruling the world!!
So…why wasn’t he tried in a jury of his peers instead of the monolithic, old school Panel of “Judges”?
Criminals hate competition.
Four years would have been enough.
If this had been set up specifically in order to push drugs, ten to fifteen, max.
This sentence is scare tactics to keep people from using their imagination to bypass the establishment, including established drug lines.
It stinks. These judges are either corrupt or just stupid. Maybe both!
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Why aren’t the Clinton’s in prison along with Eric Holder and other treasonous criminals for all their crimes? Until that happens, there is no credibility nor respect for the justice system.
You see the well connected like the Clinton Pedophile ring and selling Uranium to Russia, bilking countries and ripping off Haiti are A-OK, why you too can even run for president. Most of the entire Bush Family of Criminals also need to be put in prison and tried for treason for their ties to 911. And shot by a firing squad. There is NO justice in America. The IRS, continues to rip off Middle Americans wealth while the Wealthy Billionaires and fascist corporations park billions in foreign banks tax free. Oh all this shit is going to hit the fan and those getting ripped off will hit the wall and lash back. Bank on that with an army of 300 Million weaponized civilians. Give all of them some Lead.
The CIA under the Guise of NATO are moving tons of Illegal Drugs illegally and internationally for their black market budgets and using US Military Aircraft to do it. There is no justice. Just more of the same shit different day.
Go do a FOIA Request on US military bases for the MOU’s Declaring that Air Force bases will do their own drug enforcement void of any US Federal DEA oversight. US Military bases are housing Massive amounts of Illegal Drugs for the CIA to market world wide. Wonder why the Public is not allowed to inspect US Military bases? There you go.
Too bad he is a white national. Obummer probably would have commuted his sentence.
If he was a disgusting He-she, Cross-Dressing puke he would of been out already…Ridiculous sending this guy to prison for life under the circumstances and the crooked business of the Gov’t and those shady crooked ass agents involved, come on.
The sentence seems out of whack. He only ran the platform. He is only really guilty of not enforcing a moral code on the users. But is that his job? Certainly Mark Zuckerburg doesn’t think he has to do it and he lets paedos, terrorists etc. run wild on Facebook. If I could tot up the number of people killed and maimed as a result of the crap on Facebook, I am sure I could launch a class action suit against them and leave Zuckerburg begging for cans of soup on the street corner when we were done.
The violent flith and freaks Obama let out of jail – not to mention all the terrorists flooded into the West – is proof enough they are making an unfair example out of Ulbricht.
Zuckerfart stole Facebook from a college classmate. You think these ZZZionists can make a buck on their own or use their parasite tendencies to pilfer off other people backs.
Interestingly, and related to this story, if I recall correctly, counterfeiting in the early 1800s was a capital crime.
I am in two minds re. this. Drug usage is destroying the nation, particularly opiods (and I am not a fan of recreational marijuana; in fact somewhere around 10% of the population is alcoholic), yet on the other hand, the War on Drugs has led to a police state, which is equally bad. Martin Luther writes about the drunk man who gets on a horse, and falls off, hurting himself. Determined that that will not happen again, he gets back on… and promptly falls off the other side. I think Portugal has a solution where drugs are illegal but not criminal – can’t remember the details, but it looked like a good way around the conundrum.
I find it interestingly in how the further the nation moves from God, the more it engages in self-destructive behaviour, and the need to escape reality via drug usage, not to mention criminality. It is even more interesting to read, e.g., about the spiritual revival in Wales a century ago. So many people were turning to the Lord that the police literally had *nothing* to do. (Google Welsh revival for details)
It is also interesting how this guy got life, yet people like Obama buddy Jon “Sorry, I lost your $1.6 billion” Corzine got NADA; nor did any other banksters.
If it is true the agents involved were corrupt, we return to the 2,000 year old question posed by Juvenal, “Who will watch the guards? (who controls the controllers). Hilary? These agents? Eric Holder or his disgusting successor? Some other venal corruptocrat? Truth is, there’s a reason John Adams wrote “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
I am adamantly against drugs, but this sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole does seem extremely harsh. There have been people committing murder who have not had this harsh of a sentence. In fact there are right now people, whom we know are guilty of treason, that is punishable by death, and those said people are not even being investigated. The government institutions of all classes seem to be coming down extremely hard as of late on its citizenry. I would ask if this is in an effort to try to imprison as many people as possible? Then there are certain crimes, for unknown reasons, that are not being prosecuted. Though a low grade crime of rioting and burning, you still must wonder why not prosecuted. The governments, local, state, and federal, seem to have no uniformity in criminal punishments. The courts seem to dish out whatever punishment their mood dictates. There seems to be no rhyme nor reason to the punishments.
I’m at a mental loss here. Alexander Bell invents the telephone; is he responsible for its illegal use? Was the creator of the internet, Al Gore, responsible for its activity?
What?
Kevin2 made a “Gore”y joke!
I feel for this guy, being made an example. An extremely harsh sentence, very unfair and unjust.
Yet another instance of “What can ‘we the people’ do about this and other situations like this?” Every single day there are multiple stories like this one playing out, and I feel helpless to do anything to stop these travesties of justice and fair play.
Just another boot to the face . . .
When asked to describe what distinguished him from his challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, Gore replied (in part):
During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.
I call gore bull on that.like gorebull warming.
Kev, not sure if The Great and Illustrious Al Goreski has culpability for all illegal internet usage, but I’m pretty sure he should be jailed for inventing faux global warming (which the Financial Stability Bd just reported would cost $73 freaking TRILLION over the next 15 years). BIG GREEN MONEY indeed.
Damn he got hammered…life is a long time…he’ll be a bitch in there no doubt…unfortunate for sure. Life ain’t just or fair though.
There cannot possibly be a crime here. Who is the victim? The state? Bullshit. No harm done in a free market trade. No one forced another to buy or sell.
But all the statists will whoop and holler and call for stiffer penalties for a prohibition that doesn’t work.
Face it, the whole system is a crony corrupt shitpile (wish I had a couple of Ahren’s adjectives) where you get to play if you work for the state and you’re shit outta luck if you don’t.
FTPS
If he had just given the .gov their cut he would still be in business.
Launder a little money, pay a little fine rinse repeat.
Egor:
I agree. Somebody was losing money. Just consider who are the biggest pushers on planet earth. From what I’ve read, that would be: CIA and the Queen of England ie that mile under the city of London.
So have your lawyer make a donation to the judges. That should move this piece of hypocrisy into a better light. Lube-a-ditch is probably also waiting for a big piece of the action. Got to know who needs to get their palms greased. ?
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And Hillary is free complaining about how the election was stolen from her. She isn’t going to prison nor those that stole the election(sarcasm) The prisons aren’t big enough for all the politicians,lawyers and judges that would fill them up.
Update on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)…
30 May 2017 – “To contain the latest outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) provided technical support to 145 volunteers of the Congolese Red Cross and community health workers to deliver lifesaving information to local populations in remote areas along the Central African Republic border.”
“As of 29 May, there were 19 Ebola cases, out of which two were laboratory-confirmed, four were probable and 13 suspected,” said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier.”
“He also stated that as of that same time, there were still 294 contacts under follow-up, and as many cases had already been dismissed, it was important to look into various other options.”
ht tp://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=56863#.WTBux4WcFhE
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) leads in the number of refugees coming to the U.S. in fiscal year 2017.
U.S. Has Admitted 46,371 Refugees So Far in FY 2017; Up 19% in May
“Trump’s executive orders seeking to halt all refugee admissions for 120 days, and to limit overall refugee admission numbers to 50,000 in the current fiscal year, remain tied up in court proceedings.”
“The countries accounting for the largest numbers of refugees who arrived in May were the Democratic Republic of Congo (799), Burma (660), Bhutan (389), Ukraine (374), Somalia (294), Eritrea (276), Iraq (214), Syria (156) and Iran (125), according to State Department Refugee Processing Center data.”
“The admissions for May bring to 16,249 the number of refugees resettled in the U.S. since President Trump took office, with the largest contingents coming from the DRC (2,683), Burma (2,216), Iraq (1,696), Somalia(1,655) and Syria (1,603).
During the first eight months of fiscal year 2017, 46,371 refugees have arrived – 16,249 since Trump’s inauguration and 30,122 under his predecessor (Obama).”
ht tp://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/16249-refugees-resettled-trump-took-office-may-admissions-19
Direct links…
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=56863#.WTBux4WcFhE
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/16249-refugees-resettled-trump-took-office-may-admissions-19
You know, Ebola may be a phantom disease, one part fear mongering, two parts mind control. It could be a test to see what it takes to get a reaction from the masses, and to squash it. Those Congo people are violent. We’ll be seeing whites being hacked to death like they did in Africa. And Blacks will be dying of AIDS, because Ebola may be fake, but AIDS is real.
And Africans believe raping young white women cures AIDS. I wonder where they picked up that idea. I have a pretty good idea about that.
__ this could spark a race war. Is that the intent?
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Ebola, covert op in a hypnotized world –
No doubt the invaders from third world hellholes with primitive sanitary conditions bring with them communicable diseases that civilized countries in the West are relatively free from.
What are the symptoms of Ebola? Fever, chill, sore throat, cough, headache, joint pain. Sound familiar? Normally, this would just be called the flu.
The massive campaign to make people believe the Ebola virus can attack at any moment, after the slightest contact, is quite a success.
You show people a germ and you tell them what it is and what it does, and people salute. They give in. They believe. They actually know nothing. But they believe.
…a recent study of 15 pharmacies and 5 hospital drug dispensaries in Sierra Leone discovered the widespread and unconscionable use of beta-lactam antibiotics.
These drugs are highly toxic. One of their effects? Excessive bleeding.
…pesticide companies are notorious for shipping banned toxic pesticides to Africa. One effect of the chemicals? Bleeding.
…for decades, one of the leading causes of death in the Third World has been uncontrolled diarrhea.
…Electrolytes are drained from the body, and the adult or the baby dies. (Diarrhea is also listed as an “Ebola” symptom.)
…scandal in Liberia centering around the Firestone Rubber Plantation—chemical dumping, poisoned water.
“Rash” is listed as one of the Ebola symptoms.
…Liberia Coca Cola bottling plant: foul black liquid seeping into the environment—animals dying.
But no, blame it all on the germ.
…adenovirus vaccines, which have been used in Liberia, Guinea, and Liberia (the epicenter of Ebola), have, according to vaccines.gov, the following adverse effects: blood in the urine or stool, and diarrhea.
Don’t clean up the contaminated water supplies, don’t return stolen land to the people so they can grow food and finally achieve nutritional health, don’t solve overcrowding, don’t install basic sanitation, don’t strengthen their immune systems so they can ward off germs, don’t let the people have power—because then they would throw off the local and global corporate juggernauts that are sucking the land of all its resources.
Allow the corporate-government domination to continue.
The mainstream story about Ebola is riddled with hoax.
It’s “blame the virus” for illness and dying that come from other obvious sources.
From New Ebola outbreak, or is it a hoax? by Jon Rappoport May 22, 2017
Much more:
h ttps://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2017/05/22/new-ebola-outbreak-or-is-it-a-hoax/
New Ebola outbreak, or is it a hoax? by Jon Rappoport May 22, 2017
https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2017/05/22/new-ebola-outbreak-or-is-it-a-hoax/
It can be summed up that the government wants a monopoly on criminal activity. Placing a bet at the racetrack, legal. Off track betting, felony illegal (unless they get a cut). Lottery, legal. Writing numbers, felony illegal. Illegal drugs? Laughable. Wachovia launders $380 Billion (with a B) in dope money and no one gets prosecuted while the fine is $165 million. Afghanistan has record opium production when the US is present. Its impossible for it to be shipped out without at a minimum the knowledge if not the collusion of the US government.
The idea that you can do something financial that they can’t see infuriates them.
If Ross Ulbricbht collected fees from individual transactions and he knew or should have known were illegal then you have conspiracy and possibly accessory charges. Multiplied by the number of incidents and its very significant.
Talk about criminal behavior! All of the judges, and the federal prosecutor should be in jail. This is insanity. Ross Ulbricht murdered NO ONE. He stole from NO ONE. He lied to NO ONE. He sold US secrets, policies, national treasures, or disclosed any vital intelligence to NO ONE. A life sentence? This is a travesty of justice that should start a revolution. It clearly says that peons need to clear everything with the Elites-so the Elites can make money and keep the Deplorables under their thumbs.
Adam Kokesh is working on running for president in 2020. The first thing he wants to do is pardon Ulbricht. If you’re a voter, you know what to do.
Release him now freely. You have the right to shut up.