The petition to pardon Ross Ulbricht[1] is closing in on 50,000 signatures after just over three weeks. The petition currently sits at over 48,000 signatures.
Ross was tried and convicted[2] of Continuing a Criminal Enterprise, Computer Hacking, Money Laundering and Narcotics Trafficking Conspiracy in 2015. He received a double life sentence without the possibility of parole, plus 40 years.
The charges stem from the allegation that Ulbricht was the creator and chief operator of the Silk Road, an underground online marketplace.
The Silk Road[3] was an online marketplace that existed on the TOR network. The TOR network gives users access to the parts of the internet not visible with normal browsers. On the Silk Road, users transacted anonymously using Bitcoin, PGP and TOR. Sellers on the Silk Road sold legal items and services, but it was the illegal items that were the most popular. Drugs, mostly. But there were offerings posted on the site for guns, login accounts and similar services.
After a few articles in the media[4], the Silk Road became known in the mainstream. Senator Chuck Schumer demanded that the authorities shut it down[5]. In October 2013, Ross Ulbricht was arrested and the site’s servers were sized. It did not stop the online drug economy. Multiple copy-cat sites launched before and after the Silk Road’s closure and the online drug trade has increased significantly.
While Ross has since admitted that he did create the Silk Road, many feel that his sentence was unreasonably harsh. Ulbricht had no prior criminal record. The charges against him were non-violent. There was no victim named at his trial. He was only 26 when he created the website and 29 when he was arrested.
There were also multiple inconsistencies
