<story><title>Trump Is Considering Clemency for Silk Road Founder</title><url>https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-considers-clemency-for-ross-ulbricht-silk-road-kingpin-convicted-of-drug-and-money-laundering-charges</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gok</author><text>Do you feel the evidence suggests he did not actually intend to commit the murder-for-hire?</text></item><item><author>eruleman</author><text>Jake Chevinsky has a great Twitter thread about how Ross Ulbricht&amp;#x27;s sentencing was deeply unjust. [1]&lt;p&gt;Basically, the judge sentenced him for a crime that he wasn&amp;#x27;t convicted of (murder-for-hire): &amp;#x27;When she [the judge] gave him double life plus 40 years, she said the &amp;quot;murders significantly justified the life sentence.&amp;quot;&amp;#x27;&lt;p&gt;The most heartbreaking part of the story is the letter Ross read to the judge before sentencing:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;If you find my conviction warrants a sentence that allows for my eventual release, I will not lose my love for humanity during my years of imprisonment, . . .&lt;p&gt;I will do what I can to make up for not being there for the people I love, and to make the world a better place.&lt;p&gt;Even now I understand what a terrible mistake I made...
I know you must take away my middle years, but please leave me my old age. Please leave a small light at the end of the tunnel ... a chance to redeem myself in the free world before I meet my maker.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;jchervinsky&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1025008589080080384&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;jchervinsky&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1025008589080080384&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>KMag</author><text>My understanding is that the murder-for-hire scheme was suggested by someone acting at the direction of law enforcement at the time.  Furthermore, my understanding is that this person repeatedly pressured Ross before Ross gave in and ordered the hit.  It sounds like the classic definition of entrapment.  Law enforcement shouldn&amp;#x27;t be allowed to create a would-be-murderer and then prosecute them for essentially being easily manipulated.&lt;p&gt;I haven&amp;#x27;t followed the case, and I probably have some details wrong, but it sounds like the prosecution intentionally split the murder charge into a separate trial to be run later because the entrapment defense would have cast doubt on the other charges.  (To be clear, my limited understanding leads me to think that Ross was probably guilty of the 4 charges under which he was convicted.)  They likely probably never intended to prosecute the murder-for-trial charges except as a backup if they lost the primary trial.  The entrapment defense just looks way too easy.</text></comment>
<story><title>Trump Is Considering Clemency for Silk Road Founder</title><url>https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-considers-clemency-for-ross-ulbricht-silk-road-kingpin-convicted-of-drug-and-money-laundering-charges</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gok</author><text>Do you feel the evidence suggests he did not actually intend to commit the murder-for-hire?</text></item><item><author>eruleman</author><text>Jake Chevinsky has a great Twitter thread about how Ross Ulbricht&amp;#x27;s sentencing was deeply unjust. [1]&lt;p&gt;Basically, the judge sentenced him for a crime that he wasn&amp;#x27;t convicted of (murder-for-hire): &amp;#x27;When she [the judge] gave him double life plus 40 years, she said the &amp;quot;murders significantly justified the life sentence.&amp;quot;&amp;#x27;&lt;p&gt;The most heartbreaking part of the story is the letter Ross read to the judge before sentencing:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;If you find my conviction warrants a sentence that allows for my eventual release, I will not lose my love for humanity during my years of imprisonment, . . .&lt;p&gt;I will do what I can to make up for not being there for the people I love, and to make the world a better place.&lt;p&gt;Even now I understand what a terrible mistake I made...
I know you must take away my middle years, but please leave me my old age. Please leave a small light at the end of the tunnel ... a chance to redeem myself in the free world before I meet my maker.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;jchervinsky&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1025008589080080384&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;jchervinsky&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1025008589080080384&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>betwixthewires</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve looked closely at the evidence and anyone who was familiar with it would conclude that he absolutely did intend to have people killed, and even believed he was doing it and had done it. And it wasn&amp;#x27;t just the federal agents entrapping him, there were 2 other agreements to kill 5 other people with another entity that was not a federal agent, but was scamming him out of money and the people did not exist.&lt;p&gt;But that&amp;#x27;s not what he was charged with and that&amp;#x27;s not what he was convicted of, so he shouldn&amp;#x27;t be serving time for it. If you want him on those charges charge him with those crimes.</text></comment>