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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: 5, Insightful) by mendax on Friday May 29 2015, @11:08PM
The judge told DPR in the sentencing, according to the NY Times story, “what you did in connection with Silk Road was terribly destructive to our social fabric.”
I find that statement to be fully of irony given that the criminal justice system has probably done far more harm to the social fabric of the country thanks to the war on drugs and long prison sentences dished out willy nilly by judges than anything Silk Road has done.
Of course, DPR needs to do some prison time, but a life sentence to me seems to be insane.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2015, @11:54PM
She's a cunt, what do you expect.
She loves the current society.
Women have power over men in all things.
Men can't marry cute young girls.
What's not to like.
Prison for anyone opposed. After taking their children via CPS ofcourse.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2015, @09:35AM
Didn't he (try to) put out a hit on someone, surely that deserves serious punishment? Or am I mistaken on that?
(Score: 1) by Hank the Lion on Saturday May 30 2015, @02:24PM
Then why didn't they punish him for that?
(Score: 2) by black6host on Saturday May 30 2015, @05:18PM
That is a separate trial, which has not concluded. You can't sentence someone for a crime that they have not been proven to have committed.