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takyon writes:

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.