3 ms·

What two issues (of the 200 you mentioned) do you expect his council to argue? Why do you anticipate he will win?

• mchannon 8y ago
  Let me clear up the confusion. The original appeal is highly limited to at most two issues, and strictly matters of law. The 2255 is wide open. You're limited by the number of pages (and the realization that if the first, say, 10 claims you bring up fail, maybe it wasn't likely to make a difference if you file any more). Mention of counsel is funny, because 2/3 of 2255 issues tend to revolve around "ineffective assistance of counsel" (IAC). As such, you generally have to get a different lawyer or do it yourself, since no lawyer will accuse himself of doing a bad job with a straight face. IAC may include anything from the attorney forgetting to bring up something important, to declaring the defendant guilty in open court, to falling asleep at trial. It generally has to be something really really unprofessional, and the defendant had to have suffered "prejudice". In other words, if you were, based on the mountain of evidence, going to be found guilty, whether or not (for example) your attorney slept with your wife, you suffered no prejudice and the verdict and sentence stand. I'm sure in that pile of 2255 complaints will be the matter that the investigating officers and leading state witnesses (Carl Mark Force IV, FBI, and Shaun Bridges, Secret Service) committed perjury and theft and this prejudiced Ulbricht's right to a fair trial. There will probably also be matter about unlawful search and seizure by the feds using hacking tools, etc. I have a feeling the most fascinating stuff will be unknown to the public thus far.