it is a big part of racketeering laws. He has no chance of parole. When I read some of the things the judge said-she clearly buys into the distribution of drugs is responsible for deaths of users and I think these 5 murder for hire schemes, played a big role (I can't find much on that) and finally-making an example out of him. She said "there is good in you, but also bad." No possibility of parole. none. The feds are going to milk him like an aphid and lie to give him hope. He's going to hang himself in his cell I bet.

This is entirely too reasonable a view. You probably should be sentenced to life imprisonment but I am feeling lazy - will 8-10 years be OK for you?

Jan

Perhaps the gag order is a thing we can do something about. I doubt the legality of gag orders in the first place, and I certainly doubt that they are applicable in a situation when a person has been put into prison. He should be writing a book.

Jan

What do you think about the 5 murder for hire schemes? Was he entrapped? I can 't find much about them were they charges in this case?

Tancredo?

It didn't "go out", it was stamped on my judges and [mostly] DA's. Jury nullification is still valid today, but you can get a nice long contempt-of-court sentence for even using the phrase. The concept was actually taken to the state Supreme Court in Colorado [a juror in a drug trial refused to convict because she viewed the law as wrong] and won. trivia: the lawyer who argued the case had run for Governor as a Libertarian some years before.

Truly. In America, the jury is supposed to be the highest human authority in the courtroom, not the judge. I think that notion went out with high button shoes.

just having scanned through the article, this is
precisely what I hope the internet will continue to be,
whether the govt interferes or not -- an open source
for trading value for value. . yet amazon is charging
sales tax and the fcc is getting ready to do nasty
stuff, so PTUI. . how can we prevent the downfall
of the best thing for personal markets in ... well,
since forever? -- j
.

This is a grievous miscarriage of justice. But I can do something about it. I contributed to the fund for Ross Ulbrict's appeal. I hope many others do the same.

As far as I know, the Supremes don't rule on precedence; that's for the lower courts. The Supreme Court rules on new constitutional ground.

Life in prison? Maybe some of our rock stars in D.C. but not this guy. I hate drugs and what they do but when I saw a pretty 22 year old girl blown away working at a Shell station by a guy who was blown out on drugs did I realize that there has to be a better way. Some people will self destruct no matter what. I believe in educating the kids from 1st grade on and take them to places where people are trying to dry out. The state should sell the drugs at cost and eliminate the profit incentive for the bad guys. The war would be over from that aspect but then we could do to drugs what we have done to cigarettes. Education in the long run is the key, not swat teams.

Good question. Was this a jury trial? There at least would have been the chance for jury nullification - if handled right. And where is Fox News, Judge Napolitano, Judge Janine on all of this? This is the first I have heard of it.

it's going to be like that guy from the movie "Catch me you can" they'll turn him and he'll be FBI, NSA, ATF or DHS. ugh

thanks for that information, david

Makes me think of Shakespeare's quote about Hydra's heads. For every black market site which gets taken down, two or more spring up in its place. Now, since Ulbricht's demise, the Tor network has fallen into disrepute - its anonymity can be easily compromised by an agency simply placing enough nodes around the place and mounting timing attacks.
These days, the anonymising (read: Gulch) network of choice is I2P: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I2P

He is purely guilty of technical negligence. When he posted for technical help to that online forum, he should have bounced his access off at least 2 layers of VPN proxy, or double-routed through Tor, and used an account which couldn't be traced back to him.

Or any time they put a gag order on what is deemed a crime. What are they hiding? Wisconsin's John Doe law is an example and sounds like the evidence is being hidden in this case too.

Exactly. Convict the real innovators(Ulbrecht et al), and protect the looters(Goldman Sachs, Morgan Chase, Bankamerica, et al.)

When was the last time that the Congress passed ANY law with good of Society (with a capital S) as its' primary motivation?

and they were making an example of him to future alternative currency inventors. We are going to see many such cases I predict. Crazy convictions with outrageous sentences for the "leaders" of any such movement-keeps the masses chilled and in line

he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences?! Surely this will be overturned. There is no victim!

Likely promotions a la Waco.

I don't believe that he was charged with following the dictates of his conscience. I don't believe that it's a crime, at least not yet.

As to no victim, well, that's not necessary. Witness how many young men were imprisoned or driven into exile for refusing induction during the Vietnam conflict. My point is that whenever we get away from a semblance of constructionalism where the intent of the Constitution is concerned, we venture into a dark country where the law is whatever they say it is. And I dare say that that train is even now pulling into the station.