I find it amazing how quickly we forget in the United States people are innocent until proven guilty of any charge beyond a reasonable doubt. Hundreds of years ago that system along with others was set up to prevent injustice by the wise men and women who suffered through those difficult times. They left us some powerful laws to protect our liberty but few even know or care any longer......
--snip--
I too am hoping for his acquittal, however looking at the evidence the government has so far presented against him, paired with my knowledge of Bitcoin, I somewhat doubt that he will be found not guilty.
If no additional evidence will be presented after today (this is not the case) then the burden of proof as beyond a reasonable doubt realistically has been met.
We sit over here behind our computers. Ross is over there. Neither he nor his attorneys are trained in him just standing up and requiring the things I mentioned above ^^. Attorneys generally aren't trained that way. There is nobody he knows to trust besides his attorneys. There is nobody he will believe in who can get this info to him.
If he stands up as a man, not representing himself, but rather
presenting himself (making himself as a man, present, rather than being represented by some made-up fictional Ross Ulbricht along with a bunch of attorneys), and requiring that his accuser take the stand and testify, he has it made. It, then becomes man to man. But... once he starts this, he has to maintain it throughout. And it has to be his accuser that he faces - the USA. Law does not let the accuser's attorney or representative take the accuser's place when a defendant stands as a man - man to man.
Laws are almost never presented in court. Only codes are. A defendant can't be tried as to understanding a code. Why not? Because he didn't write the code. He doesn't have understanding of what the authors meant when they wrote it. That's what the attorneys are for. So, if he stands alone, without his attorneys, as a man, present not represented by anyone, and they can't find his signature on the code like a contract, they can't make it apply to him, except if there is harm or damage - corpus delicti. And even then it is not the code that applies. It is the harm or damage.
They don't have a case against Ross the man. What they are trying to do is to get him to agree with them that he did wrong. Once he agrees that he did wrong, they have him. But, he didn't do wrong as a man, because there isn't anyone who was harmed or damaged... corpus delicti.
Study
http://voidjudgments.com/ to see that I am right. It's all over the court cases and the law. What you as a man believe about your case is the thing that stands, except if there is corpus delicti. If they can get him to believe that he is guilty of something, he will admit to wrongdoing. Then it is all over for him. The whole court is a charade attempting to get him to admitting wrongdoing, thereby making himself guilty.