Ross Ulbricht's Mother: "What is enough for these people?"

What is happening to Ross Ulbricht is a terrible tragedy.

Because of his conviction for running Silk Road, he is facing a minimum sentence of 20 years, but that does not appear to be enough for the government.

The prosecutors appear to want a life sentence for Ulbricht and are using every trick in the book (and the stretching of the book, with a compliant judge) to get it.

Ulbricht's mother details the latest:

Somebody please tell the prosecution that the trial is over. They won it. They succeeded in keeping the jury from knowing about the extensive corruption of the Silk Road investigation. Or from hearing defense witnesses. They hamstrung cross examination. They kept the jury from knowing the full story and Ross was convicted on all seven counts. They bagged their trophy.

What is enough for these people? Nothing short of a life sentence for non-violent offenses?

Now the government intends to submit at Ross’ sentencing that six overdose deaths were caused from drugs bought from vendors on the Silk Road website.  These are vague, unproven allegations, the kind the prosecution seems to like. The government has not provided:

> Any evidence these drugs were actually purchased on Silk Road.
> Medical records relating to underlying or pre-existing conditions of these people.
> The actual cause of death of one of them.
> Autopsy reports verifying types and quantities of drugs used by two of them.
> Psychiatric records of one of them.
> Underlying information used to create the Silk Road user summaries about two of these people, or who prepared them or when.
> The identity of two people presenting at sentencing or the subject matter of their statements, but only that they are parents of people who allegedly overdosed on drugs bought on Silk Road....

Obviously the prosecution wants to make Ross an example and give him as high a sentence as possible. We were warned by more than one attorney that they do this. The higher the sentence, we were told, the better it looks on the resume. The mandatory minimum, two decades of a young man’s life – arguably the most productive, rewarding and important years he’ll have – just aren’t enough.

There is a lesson here for libertarians who believe that any direct confrontation with the government is a go. You are playing with fire. If you think Bitcoin "anonymity" is going to protect you, if the government turns its focus on you, you are terribly mistaken.

The idea that an underground market exists, where all illegal goods can be exchanged without risk, is a fairy tale. It is twice as dangerous when Bitcoin is involved because of the blockchain, which is a public record of all transactions.

Murray Rothbard was right, drug dealing should be left to drug dealers. The advancement of libertarianism is an intellectual battle, fought at many levels from high theory to street propaganda. Drug dealing may be a noble career but it should be left to specialists who are willing to assume the risk. In the market, there is everything from drug dealers to plumbers. But an advocate of liberty does not have to choose a career in either to show the efficiency of markets and prove his libertarian creds.

Do you want to advance liberty? Then read Rothbard, Mises, Hayek and Block, Get the theory down cold and think about the best way to present to others what you have learned.That's the way liberty will be advanced, not by competing against the Bloods, the Crips and the Black Guerilla Family in the drug business.

--RW