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Murder Accusations Hang Over Silk Road Boss Ulbricht's Sentencing

Posted by timothy on from the prison-break-blockbuster-in-the-works dept.

Patrick O'Neill writes: Ross Ulbricht has never been tried for murder. But tomorrow, when the convicted Silk Road creator is sentenced to prison, murder will be on the mind of the judge. Despite never filing murder-for-hire charges, New York federal prosecutors have repeatedly pushed for harsh sentencing because they say Ulbricht solicited multiple murders. The judge herself recently referred to Ulbricht's "commission of murders-for-hire" in a letter about the sentencing, painting an even grimmer picture of Ulbricht's sentencing prospects.

4 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Ground for appeal? by Harlequin80 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    IANAL & IANA (I am not American) but aren't you meant to be sentenced based on what crime you are convicted of? Seriously the QLD Chief Justice (Highest Judge in QLD) withdrew from an appeals hearing of a convicted child abuser & murderer because he had had a meeting with someone who lobbied for harsher sentences for child molesters.

    If the sentencing judge references other non-case related matters surely that would affect the standing of the ruling and open up appeals?

    1. Re:Ground for appeal? by Hussman32 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Normally if a prosecutor were to infer additional crimes not discussed during trial, the defense attorney would say 'Objection!' and the judge would immediately reply 'Sustained.'

      As an earlier poster said, if the sentence is out of bounds for what he was tried for, he'll have a strong case for an appeal.

      --
      "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
    2. Re:Ground for appeal? by Copid · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Unfortunately, I think the range of sentences the US considers reasonable for drug related crimes varies between, "we force you to be seated in The Comfy Chair for an hour" and "we nuke your city of residence and sow the radioactive fields with salt," so if he's given the harshest sentence, it will be very hard to tell the difference between "harsh drug sentence" and "fair drug sentence biased by a whiff of murder for hire."

      If you've convicted the guy of hiring hit men, by all means, throw the book at him for that. But this sounds incredibly sketchy.

      --
      An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"
  2. Re:Sounds like good grounds for an appeal, by Mitreya · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Well, the prosecutors are trying to carve out an exception to rules, as always. I am surprised that they haven't worked in "think of the children" into the story.

    New York federal prosecutors have urged Forrester to "send a message" with a long prison sentence for Ulbricht.

    And yes, IANAL, but this should not be a fairly easy appeal case:

    With less than 24 hours until the sentencing takes place, however, it seems increasingly clear that Judge Forrester is taking the accusation that Ulbricht tried to orchestrate five murder-for-hire as truth in the New York case.