Ross Ulbricht and his mother, Lyn Ulbricht, submitted a Petition of Certiorari to the US Supreme Court. It was denied on June 28. The petition was intended to highlight Constitutional violations perpetrated against Ross Ulbricht by the U.S. government. These violations included rampant corruption, fourth amendment trespasses, and blocked cross-examination by the judge. Several murder-for-hire allegations also tainted the courtroom like a virulent miasma.
The failure of the petition undermined any chance for Ross to be heard by the court system again. The only path for him to obtain freedom is through receiving a presidential pardon. Clemency seems difficult given the state of affairs. It means Ross must rely on the mercy of the United States president. This is discomforting given Trump's fervor for conducting witch hunts on drug users.
The fact that sycophants and ignoramuses spread pernicious lies does not help the situation either. Many people still believe Ross is guilty of hiring assassins to murder his enemies. From an uniformed bystander, it might appear that Ross was an evil person that needed to be locked away. The rhetoric used to paint Ross as a villain is nothing but hearsay and fabrication. It was all manufactured to demonize him so government could justify locking him in a dangerous cage for life. In reality, the judge was biased against Ross's political beliefs. More on that in a moment. To sign the petition for clemency follow this link.
Ross Ulbricht and The Silk Road Demistfyied
For anyone unfamiliar, Ross Ublricht was the alleged Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR). He created the Silk Road, which was an online dark marketplace where users could purchase a number of goods using the cryptocurrency bitcoin. Consumers could buy anything from legal and illegal goods; from jewelry to cocaine and incense to cannabis. Things like child pornography and murder-for-hire were strictly verboten. DPR wanted to keep things decent and dignified.
Freeross.org elaborated, "Silk Road was an online marketplace with an emphasis on user privacy. Using the cryptocurrency Bitcoin on the Tor browser, people anonymously exchanged a variety of goods, both legal and illegal, including drugs. Prohibited was anything involuntary that created victims or used force, such as child porn, stolen goods or violent services."
Importance of the Silk Road and Downfall of DPR
As a result of the site's policies and ethos, it grew quickly. Many people begin using it regularly. It was a massive success. Of course, this inevitably garnered attention of critics, politicians, and law enforcement agents.
The site worked wonders for many people in the drug-user ecosystem, though. These folks used to acquire their drugs from sketchy dealers in poorly lit alleyways. This suggests the Silk Road mitigated risk. It means users did not have to rely on meeting Brutus on a street corner to procure their fix. People could easily pass crypto to a Silk Road dealer, and the dealer would mail the package without incident. The site worked like Ebay. It was based on reputation. If someone reneged on their agreement, they would be down-voted and receive negative reviews. It was brilliant.
The Feds eventually tracked down Ross and arrested him in the San Francisco Public Library. They allegedly used a number of techniques to discover him, which included surveillance, espionage of the website, and tracking. Then when he finally went to court the defense used the specter of murder-for-hire allegations to poison the well. That specter stills haunts Ross to this day.
Murder-For-Hire Fake News
If anyone browses the net and conducts any search for Ross Ulbricht, they will find someone haughtily proclaiming that Ross received life imprisonment for hiring hit men. Here is one example. It is in a book called "Conspiracy" by Ryan Holiday:
"Ross was one day simply sitting in that room, dreaming his plans on a keyboard, and then another day he had to decide whether to order a contract hit on an employee who threatened to unravel his ambitious attempt to change how society works. He can’t be stopped, he won’t be stopped—what he is doing is too important. The savagery of ordering not just one murder but six would eventually put Ulbricht in a federal prison cell."
The Demonization of Ross
This idea that ordering a murder is what put Ross in prison is nonsense. I won't judge whether the author is maliciously spreading fabrications or whether he is just ignorant of the facts. Nonetheless, anyone who does research will discover that all the murder-for-hire charges were never tried in court and the Maryland indictment (allegation) was recently submitted for total dismissal. The prosecution only brought up these serious, yet shoddy allegations to influence the judge and jury. The prosecution paraded around the charges as if they were factual incidents. They did this to demonize Ross and justify tossing him in a cage for life.
Jay Liedermen, a criminal defense attorney said, “The case comes in, it’s a big splash, it’s all over the news. Almost a year later, these big mean offensive counts get dropped, it’s not a front page story anymore. It’s somewhere in the recesses of the paper. It’s just not a big deal. At that point people already associate the case with murder-for-hire. No prosecutor would ever say that’s what they’re doing, but as a long term criminal defense attorney, this happens all the time.”
The Real Verdict
It is likely the prosecution influenced the judge with these allegations. The judge herself was also critical of Ross's political opinion, which is unsurprising knowing that bureaucrats hate freedom.
Ross was an unswerving proponent of Austrian economics and the beauty the free market. He just wanted people to be free from the depredations of government. The man was not evil, and he certainly did not want anyone dead. The murder-for-hire charges were bogus. They were fake news used to assassinate his character. In reality, Ross was a compassionate entrepreneur, freethinker, and freedom lover. He just wanted people to trade openly with each other sans intrusion. He wanted to contribute his love for humanity in a novel, unexpected way via the digital universe.
Now, since the justice system failed, Ross is at the mercy of a president. However, he is also at the mercy of all the decent people of the world. We must work together to set Ross free. What happened to him was a grievous injustice that cannot be tolerated. At all costs, we must leverage our care and concern to exonerate him and free him from the custody of bad people. The future of justice and dignity depend on it.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://sterlinlujan.com/2018/07/27/ross-ulbrichts-murder-for-hire-charges-were-fake-news-used-to-assassinate-his-character-2/
A small price to pay (since I'm not paying it) for this resounding victory in the war on drugs.
He has a wait ahead, but it won't be life.
Presidents come and go.
Great article, upvoted and Resteemed.
Ross has no Obi-Wan Kenobi, we are his ONLY HOPE.
Sign The Petition!
https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-clemency-for-ross-ulbricht-serving-double-life-for-a-website
Suck my juce