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Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, aka the "Dread Pirate Roberts," has been sentenced to life in prison on multiple charges by a federal judge in Manhattan. The charges he faced carried a minimum sentence of 20 years, but he received the maximum sentence of life in prison for "engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise" (The Kingpin Statute):
Ross Ulbricht, the man behind illegal online drug emporium Silk Road, was sentenced to life in prison on Friday by Judge Katherine Forrest of Manhattan's US district court for the southern district of New York. Before the sentencing the parents of the victims of drug overdoses addressed the court. Ulbricht broke down in tears. "I never wanted that to happen," he said. "I wish I could go back and convince myself to take a different path." Ulbrict was handed five sentences one of 20 year, one of 15 years, one of five and two of life. All are to be served concurrently.
Ulbrict, 31, begged the judge to "leave a light at the end of the tunnel" ahead of his sentence. "I know you must take away my middle years, but please leave me my old age," he wrote to Forrest this week. Prosecutors wrote Forrest a 16-page letter requesting the opposite: "[A] lengthy sentence, one substantially above the mandatory minimum is appropriate in this case."
Forrest rejected arguments that Silk Road had reduced harm among drug users by taking illegal activities off the street. "No drug dealer from the Bronx has ever made this argument to the court. It's a privileged argument and it's an argument made by one of the privileged," she said.
Also at Ars Technica, Wired, and The Verge. Ulbricht faces additional charges in Maryland over an alleged murder-for-hire plot.
[Original Submission - Ed.]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @10:34PM
> I've always thought a life sentence a more egregious violation of human rights than the death penalty.
You can revoke a life sentence, you can't revoke an execution.
> I'd kill myself first chance I got.
Easy to say since you aren't actually facing a life sentence.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Friday May 29 2015, @10:42PM
Maybe so, but I wonder what his reasonable odds of expecting that to happen is.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @10:47PM
> Maybe so, but I wonder what his reasonable odds of expecting that to happen is.
Pot is on the verge of nationwide legalization.
30 more years and maybe all the bullshit drug laws will have fallen and society will have developed a sense of contrition over the damage done by the drug war.
A hell of a lot can change in 30 years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @11:51PM
Better to die now than be in prison for a week, let alone 30 years.
Better to kill before you die.
Why didn't he fight?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 29 2015, @11:59PM
He was swarmed by FBI in a public library. I don't think he had a weapon with him or even time to resist.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2015, @02:20PM
He should have tried. They might have shot him. Maybe if an Angel helped him he could have gouged their eyes with his thumbs. He'd be dead. An enemy of his might be blinded for life, or not.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday May 29 2015, @11:52PM
I wonder what his reasonable odds of expecting that [revoke sentence] to happen is.
Probably far less chance than the posited suicide:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/22/prison-suicide-rate-82-deaths [theguardian.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by gman003 on Friday May 29 2015, @11:21PM
Since both you and GP are making good (if brief) points, perhaps a compromise solution is in order:
Eliminate life imprisonment as a distinct punishment. Replace it with either lengthy jail terms or capital punishment, depending on the crime (IMO the only crimes even potentially worthy of death are murder, rape, torture and slavery, but that's another discussion right there).
Then, allow anyone sentenced to death to choose their means of execution (within reason), with "death by old age" as an option that is basically life imprisonment with no parole. If they were falsely convicted, the verdict can still be overturned, but otherwise, they're never getting out. That's as good as dead as far as society is concerned (save for the cost, which is really negligible in the grand scheme of things as long as we're imprisoning people at all).
In two strokes, that cuts down on people being wrongly executed (by making it reversible if the convict thinks they have a chance of exoneration), it eliminates issues of inhumane execution methods (since they now choose their own), and eliminates that weird intermediate between arbitrarily-long-but-finite jail terms and the death penalty. It won't be perfect, but that addresses a lot of the issues with the system.
(Score: 2, Informative) by anubi on Saturday May 30 2015, @12:44AM
From Wikipedia: [wikipedia.org]
Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton (October 5, 1946 – March 16, 2009) was an American Appalachian moonshiner originally from Maggie Valley, North Carolina. He wrote a self-published autobiographical guide to moonshine production, and self-produced a home video depicting his moonshining activities, and he was later the subject of a documentary that won a Regional Emmy Award. He committed suicide in 2009 rather than report to Federal prison after being convicted of offenses related to moonshine production.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2015, @07:20AM
> He committed suicide in 2009 rather than report to Federal prison after being convicted of offenses related to moonshine production.
And in the previous paragraph:
> Sutton, 62 and recently diagnosed with cancer,
So the guy wasn't expecting to live very long either. That's a pretty important factor in the guy's decision.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2015, @02:23PM
> He committed suicide in 2009 rather than report to Federal prison after being convicted of offenses related to moonshine production.
Disgusting how this CUNTtry has so much control over we, the male peons.
I hope it is destroyed completely.
He should have killed alot of feds etc.
That would be the correct thing to do.