Silk Road's Ulbricht loses bid to void conviction, life sentence
[81 Points] Brookklyn:
[52 Points] gwern:
Fulltext: http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/nlj/ULBRICHT-ca2-20170531.pdf
Lynn still isn't giving up: https://freeross.org/appellate-court-ruling-huge-shock-blow/
[41 Points] CloudDrop:
This makes me so sick! Destroying a young man's life in the name of "justice". As if such a punishment would have the intended effect. He could get free after let's say 10 years and you bet that he wouldn't want to get back into prison. It's just a huge waste of Ulbricht's life in an unfair case (corrupt LE everywhere)!
"a lower court's finding it more likely than not that Ulbricht arranged at least five murders for hire to protect Silk Road's anonymity."
Oh! Now citizens can get arrested for things that are "likely" and not proven. What a nice country we live in.
[18 Points] None:
A life sentence for such a brilliant man is a travesty of justice.
Can he appeal again? I hope the Ulbrichts keep fighting.
[11 Points] None:
[deleted]
[8 Points] None:
We will remember Ross. He is a a true martyr of our generation. He bravely used his intellect and insight to strive against the weight of the grotesque dogmas that have beset our society: the drug war, the culture of fear and powerlessness, the misconception that we as “free” citizens have no authority, responsibility, or autonomy to change the world around us.
Much ado has been made of his alleged crimes, from his architecture of the Silk Road, to his attempts to kill his would be blackmailers, who turned out to be corrupt agents of the very government that he was defying. By threatening to release the information of the entire Silk Road user base, they were endangering the lives of every person who had used the site, for the purposes of extortion and personal gain. Amid the complexity and ambiguity of the whole affair, it is nearly impossible for anyone but those few involved to know the full scope of everything that occurred. Even if all the allegations leveled at him were true, backed into a corner, it is not hard to see why Ross reacted the way he did.
He was human. He was flawed. Nonetheless, he dreamed of way to break the chains that have encumbered us all. Despite the risk to his own life and liberty, he acted. In spite of the consequences, he acted, trusting in his own belief in the truth and determined to make a positive impact on our society. Like every Prometheus before him, he carried a torch to share with his fellow man and light a way for the future. He is a true revolutionary figure of our time.
Any attempts to garner support for an otherwise inspiring figure have been stymied by the overt character assassination only possible in an environment of blatant hyperbole and shallow thinking. How many have been unjustly persecuted, imprisoned, and murdered in the “war on drugs”? It is in fact a war on our people, on minorities, on the proletariat. It has been, and continues to be a war on conscience, free thought, on our own autonomy as free individuals.
Will you, as supporters of democracy and liberty, stand for injustice? Do you believe that rich, powerful elites should dictate what is moral and what is just?
Do you support net neutrality? Do you believe that people should be able to think critically about important issues, without their worldview being dictated by whatever corporate entity “owns” the medium of communication?
Do you believe in the sanctity of the individual, the sacred right of people to choose for themselves what to eat, drink, and consume? Do you support women's right to control their own bodies? The right of responsible adults to enjoy the fruits of the earth in joy and recreation?
Do you support the ideals inherent in the Bitcoin protocol? Should centralized actors control and dictate your economic reality?
Do you believe in Liberty? Not as an abstract ideal, but as something real, something tangible, something accessible in your life? Is that something that is granted to you, by another individual? By the state? Or is it something that you take for yourself? To what extent will you strive to maintain it? Will you fight for it?
Would you ever risk your own freedom so that others might have it?
Ross, you are not forgotten.
“Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. “
Henry David Thoreau
[10 Points] None:
Fuck this.
If I were running a DNM, I wouldn't be in the USA tho.... Rookie move from the legend himself
[6 Points] J-Free:
Hopefully one day these judges and especially Kathrine Forrest will be found guilty for human rights violations perpetuating the senseless war on drugs.
[5 Points] kwebber321:
[3 Points] DreddPirateUlbricht:
Dicks out for Ross man, he died for our sins
[3 Points] spirates:
GG NO RE
[2 Points] hhayn:
He should have gotten a new lawyer for the appeal. A better lawyer.
[2 Points] thenorm123:
These appeals are a waste of time simply because even his most staunch supporters know he's guilty.
Time, effort and resources would be much better spent campaigning for reform of the drug laws. It's his best chance of ever seeing the outside of a jail too.
[-28 Points] None:
[deleted]
They just making a example of him so no other Americans try to start a marketplace