Topic: Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison - page 20. (Read 50169 times)

a lot of people will denied that the silk road bitcoin volume didn't help bitcoin to boost up, given the fact with out that volume things would have never gotten that much exposure on the general tech savvy world.

Bad for what business? Who's business? Without Silk Road bitcoin might not have got to where it is today. For many people the coverage bitcoin received in the media via silk road was their first introduction to bitcoin myself included. I agree the sentence was harsh though. You can rape and murder someone and get less time than what Ross got. Even people who attempt to hire hitmen to kill people usually only get 5 years or something so that shouldn't have affected his sentence much even if it was relevant to this trial (which it wasn't).

so people know how crazy ross sentence is, read up a little on a man name salvatore mancuso http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/colombian-paramilitary-leader-sentenced-more-15-years-prison-international-drug-trafficking

i wouldn't doubt is this Colombian Paramilitary leader has more the 2,000 deaths under his commands plus all the drugs he pumped into the states.

is just plain crazy for 15 years.

other explanation (why crimes is essential)

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/04/east-india-company-original-corporate-raiders

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/mar/30/it-will-take-100-years-for-the-worlds-poorest-people-to-earn-125-a-day

Awesome details, thanks for helping us question authority. QuestionAuthority. 

This.  I'm glad to have the asshole behind bars 'cause he was bad for business, but I think a life sentence was unjustified considering that they didn't even get a conviction on the murder charge. 

The dude is a first offender.  As far as I'm concerned rape, torture and murder are really about the only things that can justify life sentences, and while there was a murder charge they could have prosecuted, they didn't.

I'd be cool with the life sentence if he was actually prosecuted for the supposed attempt to hire a hitman, but that charge was dropped. Giving someone life without parole as a first time non violent offender is obscene. 10 years in prison would have been much more reasonable.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/06/30/us-judge-sentences-ex-mexican-drug-cartel-leader-to-30-years-in-prison-100/


This dude's lucky he didn't have a website selling his drugs via bitcoins. He may have gotten the death penalty if such were the case.

The law as written:

Sweeping pardons are not specifically forbidden or granted under article two of the Constitution but I can't imagine a situation where multiple applications could not be reviewed and acted on separately by the Executive Office of the President. The Presidents advisors would review the applications and suggest a pardon. All he has to do is sign them. It's not that much work for him to do them separately.

It's not uncommon, however, for a state governor to pardon (grant clemency) to all prisoners on death row before leaving office. Several hundred are usually pardoned at once.

That's an interesting question. I would've thought it could only be used for individually considered cases otherwise the prez would be accused of discarding entire laws which makes a mockery of the existing mockery.

If someone did do that they'd probably be voted straight out again by the hang 'em high crew.

I know they can't do anything about state and local level convictions.

probably have to do a sweep, or else biased towards the rich and famous

That's part of the point.

People existed before the current government, right? What was legal then, before the time of the government? Legal didn't have anything to do with anything. It all depended on what was lawful, by common law, among the people.

Government came along and started making things legal and illegal. What about the things that government hasn't judged on? Is it legal to carry a comb in your pocket? Which kinds of combs are legal and which aren't?

How many molecules of breathing air is it legal to breathe? Is this number the same for people who live in the mountains at high altitudes as it is for those who live below sea level in the Death Valley? Or isn't there anything legal or illegal that the government has done regarding breathing air?

The point is, since it would take untold volumes of legal codes if government were to judge legality or illegality about everything that exists, perhaps government should make one, all-encompassing law that says that the people are slaves in any way that government decides, right? Of course, government has already made slavery illegal.

So, since government has made slavery illegal, how can they make any law apply to anyone without enslaving that person to some extent? Here's how. If a person harms someone or damages his property. It's is the only way.

Why can government enslave someone who has harmed another or damaged his property? Because that person enslaved someone else by harming him or damaging his property. Thus, to uphold freedom for all, government has the duty to stop the slave-making person from enslaving those he has enslaved. If government enslaves somebody by making laws and forcing that person to obey them, isn't it government who is enslaving people against their (the government's) own laws?

In Ross's case, where is the person who was harmed by what Ross did, or where was the property that Ross damaged? There wasn't any. How do we know? Because nobody got on the stand in court and showed the harm or damage while attesting to the fact that Ross did it. Since there wasn't any harm or damage done, government is doing the harm and damage against Ross by enslaving him, which is against their own laws.

Agreed that Ross has a bleak future, but if "if everything was legalised" a libertarian President could pardon over a million people in jail for victimless crimes. (?)
Do pardons have to be for individuals, or can a USA President do a sweeping pardon of all people convicted of certain crimes, both State and Federal?

Still won't happen even if everything was legalised. They don't release people due to law changes. And he's not just some guy selling pot from his garage. By operating SR he was thumbing his nose at the powers that be. They have long, long memories for that type of thing.

Well with the exception that someday in the future they perform a Colombia and start legalizing all sorts of drugs and switch to a regulated model, not that I expect to see that happen for a few more decades.

...and he's gone!


A few alien probes up his butt, would be much better than life in prison.

Variety Jones promised to help him get out of jail with a helicopter, but Ross also promised to never save logfiles, so what to expect from a bunch of liars.

nobody is going to Pardon him .. it would be political suicide. He has more chance of being abducted by aliens from the prison yard ..

Those people have been free for a shockingly long time, but prison breaks are still almost non-existent. I'd say it's a far more realitic option for Ross to get a pardon from President Rand Paul or President Bernie Sanders (knowing full-well how unlikely those options are).  

Ross had ties to Costa Rica and Australia. I don't think gaining citizenship in some thrid world country would be a problem for him.
He was a experineced traveller from what I can gather.

He made a huge mistake when he thought he could run a criminal enterprise from the US and get away scot-free.