Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht Is Waiting for Trump to Keep His Word—and Set Him Free | EUROtoday

At sentencing, the decide was additionally permitted to take into consideration the murder-for-hire allegations, regardless of them by no means having been charged at trial. “Until the Supreme Court rules otherwise, relevant but uncharged crimes of this sort can be and are regularly considered by judges,” says Richman.

Ulbricht has by no means totally acknowledged the hurt inflicted by the Silk Road’s huge gross sales of medication that included heroin and different opiates, and he nonetheless reveals little regret for his actions in his public posts to Twitter, argues Jared Der-Yeghiayan, a former Homeland Security Investigations agent who infiltrated the Silk Road undercover as a part of the case in opposition to Ulbricht.

“The idea of him being released doesn’t bother me in the least,” says Der-Yeghiayan, who now works as the pinnacle of strategic intelligence at cryptocurrency tracing agency Chainalysis. “I do get bothered if there’s now a perception that he did nothing wrong, that doesn’t acknowledge the facts of the case.”

Given that Ulbricht has already spent 11 years in jail, although, the query stays whether or not that wrongdoing deserves a lifetime of imprisonment. While Ulbricht’s harsh sentence is perhaps legitimate in a strictly technical sense, says Leeza Garber, a lecturer in regulation at The Wharton School on the University of Pennsylvania, in knotty instances like this, authorized questions can’t be neatly remoted from moral and political ones.

“Just because something is reasonable, that doesn’t mean that it’s right,” says Garber. “We have such complex and conflicting views on the war on drugs and use of prison in this country. Mix that with the idea that this crime occurred partly in cyberspace, and it becomes extremely messy. It’s hard to reckon with this confluence of issues.”

Some advocates for jail reform, quite a few whom help Ulbricht’s petition for clemency, consider sentencing guidelines want to alter. They assume the emphasis must be on rehabilitation versus retribution—and that parole must be reintroduced to the federal prison system. They hope that Ulbricht’s launch might act as a catalyst.

“Ross has served more than enough time. He has been a model prisoner. He’s a first-time, nonviolent offender. He poses zero safety risk to the community,” says Alice Johnson, CEO of the justice reform basis Taking Action for Good, who spent 20 years in jail herself for drug trafficking earlier than her life sentence was commuted by Trump in 2018. “I believe that Ross’ case is going to pave the way for many others who have been unjustly given these draconian sentences to come home.”