Ross Ulbricht may face life in prison if convicted in a trial now going in NYC, reports Bloomberg.
Bloomberg notes:
Ulbricht has pleaded not guilty to the seven counts against him, including trafficking drugs on the Internet, narcotics-trafficking conspiracy, computer-hacking conspiracy and money-laundering conspiracy. If convicted in the first-of-its-kind trial targeting the Internet’s dark side, Ulbricht could spend the rest of his life in prison...The criminal case is U.S. v. Ulbricht, 14-cr-068; the civil forfeiture case is U.S. v. Ulbricht, 13-cv-06919, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
[The judge in the case Katherine B.] Forrest, appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2011, last week sentenced Abu Hamza al-Masri, a Muslim cleric who preached at a London mosque attended by Sept. 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui, to life in prison for his role in a deadly hostage-taking and a failed bid to start a terrorist training camp in Oregon. She ruled against Ulbricht on several key issues before the trial...
Ross is basically an overeager libertarian, who fell into the trap of thinking that he could directly take on the US government. It's a very dangerous thing to do. If Ross loses in court, the government is going to attempt to take his freedom for the rest of his life, not a position a libertarian, or pretty much anyone wants to be in.
-RW
Does this law exist because a critical mass of people believe it is just to imprison someone who is engaging in the peaceful exchange of certain drugs? The government is violating the NAP, but how much of this atrocity is the fault of those who support the drug laws even though they haven't violated the NAP directly themselves? I'm torn as to what percentage which group deserves the blame for this.
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