This pardon seems justified to me. Nobody deserves “double life imprisonment plus 40 years, without the possibility of parole”, as far as I’m concerned. Yes, literally nobody. And here it’s even worse than that: the sentence was explicitly designed to be exemplary, i.e., to frighten others. That is just retribution, vengeance, posing as justice. America should be better than that.
I’m aware that this guy probably ordered two murders. The probably is important.
Happend in France a months ago. When there were riots after a cop killed a boy in the poor suburbs, one of our dear ministers (/s) asked for exemplary sentences and some of them took months of prison for packs of rice or energy cans…
The court has no evidence that he ordered murders and dismissed the charges in such a way that they can never be filed again.
Right after Ross’s arrest, prosecutors in the state of Maryland filed a separate indictment that contained the only allegation of murder-for-hire ever filed against Ross. The indictment referenced an alleged hit on Curtis Green, a Silk Road administrator (more on Curtis Green below). For nearly five years, that indictment was left untouched, unprosecuted. Eventually, in July 2018, the District of Maryland dismissed it with prejudice, meaning it can never be re-filed or used against Ross again.[3][4]
This pardon seems justified to me. Nobody deserves “double life imprisonment plus 40 years, without the possibility of parole”, as far as I’m concerned. Yes, literally nobody. And here it’s even worse than that: the sentence was explicitly designed to be exemplary, i.e., to frighten others. That is just retribution, vengeance, posing as justice. America should be better than that.
I’m aware that this guy probably ordered two murders. The probably is important.
Nobody? What sentence would you give Hitler?
20 years maybe, then a permanent community-service mandate
Chelsea Manning and Aaron Swartz also got ridiculous sentences. It’s a theme with cyber cases
It’s a theme with the US justice system. Doesn’t happen in Europe, even for genuinely bad crimes.
Happend in France a months ago. When there were riots after a cop killed a boy in the poor suburbs, one of our dear ministers (/s) asked for exemplary sentences and some of them took months of prison for packs of rice or energy cans…
The court has no evidence that he ordered murders and dismissed the charges in such a way that they can never be filed again.
The PDF referenced in 3: https://freeross.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Doc_14_Dismissal_Indictment_7-26-2018.pdf
Quoted site: https://freeross.org/false-allegations/
Not beyond reasonable doubt, no. But there was a preponderance of evidence, according to the court. I’m sure you already know this.
In criminal law you need overwhelming proof. So I agree with you, it’s absolutely correct that he was not found guilty of this.