At sentencing, the judge was also allowed to consider the murder-for-hire charges, despite never being charged at trial. “Until the Supreme Court rules otherwise, relevant but uncharged crimes of this type can and are regularly considered by judges,” Richman said.
Ulbricht has never fully acknowledged the damage caused by the massive sales of drugs on the Silk Road, including heroin and other opiates, and he still shows little remorse for his actions in his public posts on Twitter, argues Jared Der-Yeghiayan, a former Homeland Security Investigations. agent who infiltrated the Silk Road undercover as part of the case against Ulbricht.
“The idea of him being released doesn't bother me at all,” said Der-Yeghiayan, who now works as head of strategic intelligence at cryptocurrency tracing firm Chainalysis. “I find it annoying if there is now the impression that he has done nothing wrong, while the facts of the case are not recognized.”
Given that Ulbricht has already spent 11 years in prison, the question remains whether this misconduct merits a life sentence. While Ulbricht's harsh sentence may be justified in a strictly technical sense, says Leeza Garber, a law professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, legal issues in tough cases like this cannot be neatly isolated from ethical and political questions.
“Just because something is reasonable doesn't mean it's good,” Garber says. “We have such complex and conflicting views about the war on drugs and the use of prisons in this country. Combine that with the idea that this crime took place partly in cyberspace, and it gets extremely messy. It is difficult to take this confluence of problems into account.”
Some prison reform advocates, some of whom support Ulbricht's clemency petition, believe sentencing rules need to change. They believe the focus should be on rehabilitation rather than retribution — and that parole should be reinstated into the federal criminal system. They hope that Ulbricht's release can act as a catalyst.
“Ross has served more than enough time. He has been a model prisoner. He is a first-time, non-violent offender. He does not pose any safety risk to the community,” said Alice Johnson, CEO of the justice reform foundation Taking Action for Good, who herself served 20 years in prison for drug trafficking before her life sentence was commuted by Trump in 2018. “I believe Ross's case will pave the way for many others who have wrongfully received these draconian sentences to come home.”
