When sentencing, the judge was also allowed to consider murder-for-hire charges, despite them never being charged at trial. Richman says, “Unless the Supreme Court rules otherwise, these types of relevant but uncharged crimes may be routinely considered by judges.”
Former Homeland Security Investigations official Jared Der-Yeghiyan argues that Ulbricht never fully acknowledged the harm caused by the massive sale of drugs, including heroin and other opiates, on Silk Road, and he still does so in his public posts on Twitter. Shows little remorse for his actions. agent who secretly infiltrated the silk road As part of the case against Ulbricht.
“The idea of him being released doesn’t bother me at all,” says Der-Yeghiyan, who now works as head of strategic intelligence at cryptocurrency tracing firm Chainalysis. “I am troubled if there is now a perception that he has done nothing wrong, which does not accept the facts of the case.”
Given that Ulbricht has already spent 11 years in prison, however, the question remains whether his wrongdoing deserves a life sentence. Lisa Garber, a law lecturer at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, says that although Ulbricht's harsh punishment may have been legal in a purely technical sense, the legal questions in such complex cases cannot be separated from the moral and political questions. Could.
“Just because something is reasonable doesn't mean it's right,” says Garber. “Our views on the war on drugs and the use of prison in this country are very complex and contradictory. Combine this with the idea that this crime partially occurred in cyberspace, and it gets extremely messy. “It is difficult to consider this confluence of issues.”
Some prison reform advocates, many of whom supported Ulbricht's petition for clemency, believe that sentencing rules need to be changed. He believes there should be an emphasis on rehabilitation rather than retribution – and that parole should be re-introduced into the federal criminal system. He hopes Ulbricht's release can serve as a catalyst.
“Ross has served more than enough time. He has been a model prisoner. He is a first-time non-violent offender. “He poses zero security risk to the community,” says Alice Johnson, CEO of the justice reform foundation Taking Action for Good, who served two decades in prison for drug trafficking before Trump commuted his life sentence in 2018. “I believe Ross's case is going to pave the way for many others who have been unjustly given these harsh sentences to come home.