4 ms·

Then why would they drop the charge if they thought the evidence pointed to the fact he did it.

cjbgkagh 2y ago
'preponderance' is the clue, criminal is 'beyond all reasonable doubt', civil is preponderance. Ross was being charged under criminal law.
- qingcharles 2y ago
  This. Evidence that isn't strong enough to criminally convict can be used for other purposes (e.g. sentencing, knowledge/intent, civil forfeiture, civil damages etc). (see OJ Simpson paying money damages for a crime he was acquitted of)
rsanek 2y ago
this would be a criminal charge preponderance of the evidence wouldn't be enough to convict
- selimthegrim 2y ago
  Sentencing phase
tzs 2y ago
Separate courts. He was indicted and tried for all the non-murder stuff in a New York federal court. He was indicted separately in a Maryland federal court on a murder-for-hire charge. The New York court convicted him, and then considered the murder-for-hire allegations when determining his sentence. They found them true by a preponderance of the evidence and and that was a factor in his sentence to life without parole. He appealed, and the Second Circuit upheld the sentence. The prosecutors in Maryland then dropped the murder-for-hire charge because there was no point. They said this would allow them to direct their resources to other other cases where justice had not yet been served.
- gigatexal 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - honestSysAdmin 2y ago
    The Silk Road run by Ross Ulbricht did not have assassins on it, nor did it have any human trafficking on it. I support your right to disagree with the pardon. But please don't recklessly post disinformation like that.
    - Bud 2y ago
      [dead]
  - zoklet-enjoyer 2y ago
    That's not true. It wasn't a free for all platform.
    - gigatexal 2y ago
      Hmm did some research. Apparently it wasn’t just drugs and random stuff. I had always thought it was the 4chan of marketplaces. https://www.gawkerarchives.com/the-underground-website-where-you-can-buy-any-drug-imag-30818160 https://www.gawkerarchives.com/the-underground-website-where... Though an article by CBS (transcript is an interview) has this: “THE HUNT FOR DREAD PIRATE ROBERTS In 2011 there was a new bad guy in cyberspace behind the website Silk Road. He oversaw more than $200 million in illegal transactions on the dark web, involving the sale of drugs, weapons and illicit services such as computer hacking. Even murders for hire were discussed on the site.” “Milan Patel: We saw murder-for-hire postings, hacking-for-hire postings, which was, "hey, pay me two bitcoin, and I'll hack into your ex-wife or ex-husband's email account." … and I suspect people were using it because it made a lot of sense. It was totally anonymous. And you could never trace it back to the person who asked for it.” https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/ross-ulbricht-dread-pirate-roberts-silk-road-fbi/ https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/ross-ulbricht-dread-pirate-... It stands to reason that given criminals buying and selling drugs online that the adjacent work of hacking or even murder for hire would be sought or facilitated given the fact that folks on the platform thought they were anonymous as they were transacting in bitcoin. So someone should call the FBIs bluff and given this pardon either Ross himself or one of you — his fans — could go spin up a server and restart silk road. Trump’s basically saying it’s legal. As he’s got the power to enforce or not enforce the laws this pardon basically is saying start selling drugs online. Let your libertarian freak flag fly.
mmooss 2y ago
Possibly because he was already facing a long sentence and it wasn't worth pursuing that charge.

'preponderance' is the clue, criminal is 'beyond all reasonable doubt', civil is preponderance. Ross was being charged under criminal law.

qingcharles 2y ago
This. Evidence that isn't strong enough to criminally convict can be used for other purposes (e.g. sentencing, knowledge/intent, civil forfeiture, civil damages etc). (see OJ Simpson paying money damages for a crime he was acquitted of)

rsanek 2y ago

this would be a criminal charge preponderance of the evidence wouldn't be enough to convict

selimthegrim 2y ago
Sentencing phase

tzs 2y ago

Separate courts. He was indicted and tried for all the non-murder stuff in a New York federal court. He was indicted separately in a Maryland federal court on a murder-for-hire charge. The New York court convicted him, and then considered the murder-for-hire allegations when determining his sentence. They found them true by a preponderance of the evidence and and that was a factor in his sentence to life without parole. He appealed, and the Second Circuit upheld the sentence. The prosecutors in Maryland then dropped the murder-for-hire charge because there was no point. They said this would allow them to direct their resources to other other cases where justice had not yet been served.

gigatexal 2y ago
[flagged]
- honestSysAdmin 2y ago
  The Silk Road run by Ross Ulbricht did not have assassins on it, nor did it have any human trafficking on it. I support your right to disagree with the pardon. But please don't recklessly post disinformation like that.
  - Bud 2y ago
    [dead]
- zoklet-enjoyer 2y ago
  That's not true. It wasn't a free for all platform.
  - gigatexal 2y ago
    Hmm did some research. Apparently it wasn’t just drugs and random stuff. I had always thought it was the 4chan of marketplaces. https://www.gawkerarchives.com/the-underground-website-where-you-can-buy-any-drug-imag-30818160 https://www.gawkerarchives.com/the-underground-website-where... Though an article by CBS (transcript is an interview) has this: “THE HUNT FOR DREAD PIRATE ROBERTS In 2011 there was a new bad guy in cyberspace behind the website Silk Road. He oversaw more than $200 million in illegal transactions on the dark web, involving the sale of drugs, weapons and illicit services such as computer hacking. Even murders for hire were discussed on the site.” “Milan Patel: We saw murder-for-hire postings, hacking-for-hire postings, which was, "hey, pay me two bitcoin, and I'll hack into your ex-wife or ex-husband's email account." … and I suspect people were using it because it made a lot of sense. It was totally anonymous. And you could never trace it back to the person who asked for it.” https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/ross-ulbricht-dread-pirate-roberts-silk-road-fbi/ https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/ross-ulbricht-dread-pirate-... It stands to reason that given criminals buying and selling drugs online that the adjacent work of hacking or even murder for hire would be sought or facilitated given the fact that folks on the platform thought they were anonymous as they were transacting in bitcoin. So someone should call the FBIs bluff and given this pardon either Ross himself or one of you — his fans — could go spin up a server and restart silk road. Trump’s basically saying it’s legal. As he’s got the power to enforce or not enforce the laws this pardon basically is saying start selling drugs online. Let your libertarian freak flag fly.

mmooss 2y ago

Possibly because he was already facing a long sentence and it wasn't worth pursuing that charge.