Sorry got his name wrong
The accusations of murder-for-hire in Ulbricht’s case have become a controversial albatross around the 30-year-old defendant’s neck: despite describing how Ulbricht allegedly attempted to pay for the murders of six people in pre-trial documents, prosecutors haven’t actually charged Ulbricht with those murders. Nor have they produced any evidence that anyone was actually killed. He has, however, been charged with attempting to pay for the killing of his alleged Silk Road employee Curtis Clark Green in a separate case in Maryland—the hitman to whom he allegedly paid $80,000 was an undercover DEA agent.
When Ulbricht was first arrested in October of last year, prosecutors’ claims of his violent acts quickly eroded his popular support among Silk Road’s thousands of users and much of the libertarian community. His alleged persona in the Silk Road’s community forums, by contrast, had encouraged only victimless crime like drug use, and advocated a nonviolent free market philosophy. Ulbricht’s lawyers and family have argued that the alleged killings without formal charges were intended to taint his reputation.
“This is…an uncharged crime, which conveniently requires no proof but goes a long way to prejudice a jury (and the public),” reads a blog post on FreeRoss.org, a website created by Ulbricht’s family and friends. “Basically the prosecution wants [to] smear Ross’ reputation without having to prove anything.”
Despite leaving murder-for-hire out of its charges, the prosecution in the New York case has countered that the murder accusations fall within the broader charge of a narcotics conspiracy. But the defense has repeatedly sought to have discussion of the murder-for-hire cases precluded from the trial. “The mere mention of the ‘murder for hire’ allegations would improperly introduce the toxic issue of violence and murder, generating [irremediable] prejudice to Mr. Ulbricht,” reads the defense’s latest motion filed earlier this week.
Judge Forrest has yet to rule on that motion. In the mean time, those murder accusations will continue to weigh on Ulbricht’s reputation—and keep his defense in the dark.
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