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We need heroes. #rossulbricht #freerossulbricht _ #anarchy #anarchism #anarchist #libertarian #libertarianmemes #misesinstitute #freemarket https://www.instagram.com/p/BzysBzuH-Uf/?igshid=1inmax8xwk7ul

#rossulbricht #freerossulbricht #anarchy #anarchism #anarchist #libertarian #libertarianmemes #misesinstitute #freemarket

💫 Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. ~Elvis Presley ✊🏽 #freerossulbricht (at Malibu, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMGbbXgAO_f/?igshid=jdrwcth0ada4

#freerossulbricht

Limited Edition Birthday Ross Ulbricht avatar. Find them at Digitible.com!

#freerossulbricht #happybirthdayross #digitibleboutiqueNFTcreator

In Honor of Ross Ulbricht⭐️ #freerossulbricht #darkweb #silkroad #darknet #theplaygroundclothing https://www.instagram.com/p/BvQnMdxF_A4/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=oum5jrg0sudh

#freerossulbricht #darkweb #silkroad #darknet #theplaygroundclothing

Ross Ulbricht home video taken in Austin 4 months before his arrest. A true representation of who Ross really is. Certainly not the ‘kingpin’ his is depicted as in the media.

#freeross #freerossulbricht #injustice #silkroad #silkroadcase

Solitary Confinement Reformation.

- Having researched the issue of Solitary Confinement, I have confidently reached the conclusion that this practice should be wholly abolished for all non-violent offenders. In this piece I hope to address various aspects and issues surrounding Solitary Confinement, and successfully portray my views on why I believe this implementation is severly unavailing, harrowingly cruel, counterproductive and blatantly ludicrous.

For the majority of the 20th century, the average amount of time for an inmate to undergo Solitary would have been a few days, and sometimes weeks in few extreme cases. However, presently it is not unlikely to find prisoners condemned to suffer Solitary Confinement for several years. Because solitary confinement widely occurs at the discretion of prison administration, many inmates spend years, even decades, cut off from any real social interaction. They will spend, at the least, 22 hours of their day completely alone, separate from humanity, locked in a miniscule, featureless cell. With only an hour a day reserved for exercise, and socal interaction strictly restricted to that of receiving food from Prison Guards, this severly heinous punishment is blatantly barbaric to govern any human being from enducing.

(1)- This practice physically and psychologically severly damages the person subjected.

- The fundamental purpose that led to the establishment of this Policy was the endeavour to protect inmates from harming themselves and others. However, the staggering results of this treatment imposed on inmates has proven to achieve the complete opposite. Many Psychiatrists who have studied the effects induced by Solitary, have reached the same conclusion. Prisoners who suffer from Solitary for longer periods of time have a strong chance of experiencing a specific psychiatric syndrome, characterized by hallucinations; panic attacks; overt paranoia; diminished impulse control; hypersensitivity to external stimuli; and difficulties with thinking, concentration and memory. The use of Solitary has evidently demonstrated that it provides absolutely no positive accomplishment to the inmate's welfare. However contradictorily, manifests to the point that the person subjected to, what I would call torture, runs a substantially higher risk of causing harm to themselves and others, than they would have, given their original state. Moreover, inmates in solitary have been found to engage in self-mutilation at rates that are much higher than the general prison population.

Correspondingly, the number of suicides caused by Solitary is also a major issue.

As one inmate explained:

“The Hole and Segregation cells are depressing enough to drive many men to take their lives in order to escape. For some it would appear to be the only way out. After years of living in the cramped confines of a segregation cell with no hope of getting out, it is eassy to see why a man would prefer death.”

This statement clearly represents the agonizing reverse effects caused by this practice. The criminal justice system continues to throw away human life as though it were nothing, subjecting people to this tortuous act of retribution which in actual fact, has been proven to inflame the situation, and increasingly result in gravely negative effects. I believe the justice system should be just that, it should live up to its name by bringing justice and peace for the victim. However, it is also about reconciliation, a chance for the offender to turn their life around, to recognise their transgression, and become exemplary, contributing, and positive members of society. What it is not about is condemning human beings to, in some cases, a lifetime of silence, boxed between four steel walls for what will seem like an eternity. What we must recognise is that within everyone is the ability for brilliance, we must allow them the chance to restructure their lives and give them the opportunity for rehabilitation.

(2)- The difficulty while rejoining society/ inability to socially interact.

- The devastating effects inflicted on a person due to Solitary Confinement do not just retain while this practice is taking place, there are also exceedingly traumatic after effects that remain following the release from Solitary. People often feel an inability to recollect their identity, crippling anxiety, and the incapacity to socially, physically, and mentally rejoin society. Furthermore, young offenders are also permitted to be subjected to Solitary. The sanctioning of children and young adults to this extremity of punishment seems barbarous, callous, and is highly likely to cause the person grievous after effects, which could restrict them from conciliating their lifes, and living a righteous, law-abiding, reconstructive future.

The administration of this practice for children and young adults profoundly deceases the chance of them regaining a healthy, productive lifestyle subsequently. It also does not give them the positive opportunity to become influential citizens.

Another issue I would like to raise is that regarding the outrageous number of non-violent offenders subjected to Solitary. The sole purpose of Solitary Confinement is to protect the person it has been administrated to, and also to protect the safey of others. Therefore, it is absolutely nonsensical to orchestrate this kind of punishment to any non-violent offenders. Consequently, this completely defeats the fundamental justification for these actions. It also enforces a disgraceful precedent that it is morally acceptable to subject anyone, regardless of their offence, to spend time in Solitary Confinement. These careless and heartless acts cannot be allowed to continue against non-violent offenders who do not pose a threat to anyone's safety of well being.

“You might assume all inmates sent to solitary are the “worst of the worst”—rapists and murderers who continue their violent ways even behind bars. But in fact, many are placed in solitary for non-violent offenses, and some are not even criminals, having been arrested on immigration charges.” - Scientific American Magazine.

Over 80,000 citizens are currently suffering from Solitary Confinement in U.S prisons, many of which are non-violent offenders. It is evident that this is a blatantly injust and morally corrupt use of this system. Due to the inexcusable rate at which more and more U.S States and prisons are introducing Solitary (44 states are known to use this method of punishment) and at which a countless number of non-violent offenders are objectionably subjected to this, the issue of Solitary Confinemnt must be addressed and urgently rethought.

(3)- Obama's Solitary Confinement Reformation.

“How can we subject prisoners to unnecessary solitary confinement, knowing its effects, and then expect them to return to our communities as whole people?” Obama wrote. “It doesn’t make us safer. It’s an affront to our common humanity.”

This was a statement President Obama made addressing the issue of Solitary Confinement just recently. Following this, Obama has ruled that Solitary will be immediately banned for juveniles under the age of 18 wihin Federal Prisons, and will prohibit Federal correction officials from the use of Solitary for prisoners who commit “low-level infractions.” Which is currently greatly oveused. These new laws will also decrease the maximum number of days a first time offender can be subjected to Solitary, the maximum number of days a first time offender can now serve in Solitary is now 60 days, whereas previous laws allowed this to be 365 days.

This critical reform could not have been made soon enough, the disallowing of this unconstitutional and inhumane practice for young offenders will significantly impact their futures, giving them the chance to restructure their lives and live a healthy future. Unlike restricting this with the destructive effects imposed by the use of Solitary. Moreover, the prohibition of this practice for low-level offenders will considerably decrease the number of prisoners erroneously subjected to this treatment.

The imperative realignment of rules surrounding Solitary Confinement is hopefully the first step into reforming other prominently corrupt policies and unprecedented actions committed by Law enforcement officials and the Government that occur much too often.

Obama wrote. “In America, we believe in redemption.”

#injustice #solitary #solitary confinement #freeross #freerossulbricht

BRADY RULE VIOLATIONS DURING SILK ROAD CASE:

-This piece is dedicated to demonstrating the countless occasions in which the government and court violated the Brady Rule (stating that it is unlawful to suppress any evidence favourable to a defendant) during the Silk Road investigation, trial, and sentencing. However, this piece is not specifically centralized to the Silk Road case, as it is just one of many cases in which the government have found it acceptable to overthrow the laws of the country and disregard true justice. I hope to give you an insight into the battle to shape the slowly corrupting government which now defines our world, and whoever wins will influence not only the future of the internet, but the very principle of what it means to be free.

-The government failed to produce exculpatory material in a timely fashion that would have permitted the defense effective use of the material and information at trial. Therefore restricting the defense from forming an efficacious argument within the given time scale. Resulting in a violation on the Brady rule.

- “The Brady rule safeguards the fundamental principal that a trial is a search for the truth and protects the Government's unique interest in a criminal prosecution not to win a case, but ensure that justice shall be done.” Clearly, the Brady rule was explicitly contravened on countless occasions during the Silk Road investigation and later Trial. This is evident from the General Warrant applied throughout the search and seizure of Ross' digital applications, such as his laptop, laptop files, Gmail account and Facebook. All of which required a Specific Warrant in order to be investigated. Nonetheless, the government thought it acceptable to intercept his personal property regardless of the fact that in doing so with a general Warrant, they themselves were infiltrating the Law. Not only could this implicate the government in fabricating files on Ross' laptop (as several DEA agents were later tried and convicted for money laundering within the Silk Road, and fabricating Government documents) but this also highly violates Ross' 4th and 5th Amendment rights. The fourth “prohibitng unreasonable searches and seizures.” And the fifth “protecing the rights to due process.”

- The Brady Rule also states, “The Government has a constitutional duty to disclose favourable evidence to the accused.” During the Silk Road trial, innumerable amounts of predominant information favourable to the Defense and defendant was withheld. For example, the fact that several DEA agents were under investigation (they had not been convicted at the time) as they were largely suspected of money laundering within the Silk Road website. Moreover, these agents had been undercover in the site for nearly two years, and had gained a high ranking status within the community by this time. Subsequently, with both trust from the users, and government tools, were quite easily able to attain the passwords of many Silk Road accounts and consequently gaining the control of them. These agents also had the means to manipulate logs, chats, private messages, keys, posts, account information and bank accounts. Because of the discovery that these agents were corrupt, and could have fabricated certain evidence in the prosecutions favour, or to disengage themselves from any suspection and illegal involvement, all evidence acquired by them should have been declared immaterial. Furthermore, the Brady Rule was further violated as the Jury was restricted from knowing that these agents were corrupt, and could have caused extensive internal corruption, and were severly advised and instructed against searching the web for information regarding the Silk Road case. Notwithstanding the investigation into this corruption, the government and prosecution continued to use the evidence obtained by the agents. Which is clearly unconstitutional and corrupt in itself. (To this day dozens of encrypted emails sent to and from the undercover corrupt agents remain undeciphered).

“The fantasy is, that this sentence is anything more that purely punitive and completely beyond the range of what drug offenders get in this district, in this circuit, in this country.”- Ross' attorney Joshua Dratel.

- “[t]here are three components of a true Brady violation:

(1)The evidence at issue must be favourable to the accused, either because it is exculpatory or because it is impeaching; (2) that evidence must have been suppressed by the [Government], either willfully or inadvertently; and (3) prejudice must have ensued.” I will address each of these components individually, to articulate just how 'above the law' and corrupt the government has become.

(1)- The Mark Karpeles / Alternative Perpetrator Defense:

- Ross Ulbricht's Defense Lawyers had mounted a very effective and constructive argument depicting Mark Karpeles as an alternative DPR. (Although it had been stated by the Defense from the beginning that Ross did start Silk Road as an open market and economic experiment, but passed it on to someone else soon after its creation. This was the only extent of his involvment.). Mark Karpeles (also known under the alias 'MagicalTux', who was the CEO of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox) had been suspected (and presued by Jared Der-Yeghiayan, who had built a substantial case with probable cause against Mr. Karpeles) of fashioning the DPR pseudonym and running the Silk Road for 2 years prior to the investigation and later arrest of Ross Ulbricht (who had only been under investgation for two months former to the Government apprehending him). Furthermore, Ross has had no prior convictions, or any implications at all with regards to breachings of the Law. While Mr. Karpeles had been suspected and later arrested concerning the falsification of data and the improper tranferring of MtGox funds in February of 2014, and again in August of 2015. Although I am not accusing Mr. Karpeles of running the Silk Road, I am stating that I believe it is exceedingly more plausible to accused a man who had been suspected of infiltrating the law (and later gained convictions) than to suspect a Eagle Scout, who clealy does not fit the typical 'kingpin' demeanour nor had previously been incriminated with any unlawful behaviour.

Due to the mounting evidence (collected by Jared Der-Yeghiayan during his private enquiries and also by Ross' Defense Team's own research) the Defense found it salient and essential that this line of enquiry been taken futher into consideration at Trial to hopefully prevent a corrupt conviction from taking place, that is inconsistent with the law, and blatantly injust. As a result of this, over the course of the first week of the Silk Road Trial, the Defense moulded their case around the rational suggestion that Mark Karpeles could have been an alternative DPR. During this time, the Defense cross examined Jared Der-Yeghiayan, they concluded from this that Mr. Der- Yeghiayan, from his enquiries, not only believed that Mr. Karpeles could be DPR, but suspected multiple people of interacting within the Silk Road via the DPR account. At this time the prosectution objected to the Defence's line of questioning, testifying that the “Defense were accusing an alternative perpetrator.” The court filled with a murmer of laughter at this point, with the Judge commenting “Well yes, how else do you do it?”

As a result from this little outburst by the Prosecution, Judge Forrest found it satisfactory to make the following statements - The fact that the agent persued someone other than the Defendant was “highly relevant” and also “directly relevant”. She also pointed out that the possibility of an alternative suspect was “in the heartland of the Defense.”

However, staggeringly over the course of a weekend, Judge Katherine Forrest deemed any line of investigation or exploration into Mr. Karpeles regarding the possible alternative perpetrator proposition as 'Off limits' or 'Not relevant.' Patently, it is not hard to see that this is an unequivocal and direct infringement of the Brady Rule. By dismissing the Mark Karpeles line of enquiry, the Defense, and I quote from Forbes, was completely 'derailed'. Not to mention that the evidence that could have been unveiled surrounding this questioning and investigation possibly could have overturned the verdict entirely. This was just one of the multitudinous tactics and corrupt ploys organised and effectuated by the government to ensure that Ross be wrongly convicted and sentenced.

(2)- Suppression Of Witnesses/ Documents:

-The second component I would like to discuss is the matter of which “evidence must have been suppressed by the [Government], either willfully or inadvertently.” To express a Brady violation. It is evident that throughout the investigation, and explicitly throughout Ross' trial, an inumberable amount of documents, files and witnesses were suppressed by the government (coincided with by the Court) that was of significant favourability to the Defense.

Furthermore, the Brady Rule can also be violated under the following circumstance..“ If evidence is suppressed when the prosecutor does not disclose it in time for its effective use at trial.” Only ten days before the Silk Road trial was due to commence, over five thousand pages of material favourable to the Defense was submitted by the government. It was highly conjectured by the Defense that an alternative DPR had taken over administration and ownership of the website in the very early stages of its development, and this DPR (from discovering that Law enforcement was taking an exceptional interest into the investigation and closure of the site) thought it sagacious to structure fabricated and tampered with evidence, of which would implicate Ross with the DPR pseudonym and with operating the Silk Road under a high ranking administrative user profile. With this false evidence, DPR then progressed to hack and plant this onto Ross' laptop, in a bid to extricate themselves from any line of enquiry and eliminate themselves from any entanglement within the Silk Road chain of investigation. This theory was highly supported by the five thousand pages of evidence submitted by the government. However, with less than ten days to interpret and construct an effective use of this information, it could not play a part within the trial. This demonstrates yet another clear contravention of the Brady rule. “Even when exculpatory is disclosed, a Brady violation can still occur if the disclosure is untimely.” I believe it is in complete clarity that the government's actions were unprecedented, unlawful, and severly corrupt.

Moreover, I would like to address the fact that the Prosecution put an exceeding amount of effort into banning Ross' libertarian and idealistic views in court. Ross had always been passionate about the idea of a free market, and the ideology of a free flow of trade. With this passion, Ross created a game (prior to the development of the Silk Road) to give people a first hand simulation experience of what it would be like to live in a world of free trade. Although, with this passion came boundaries, Ross strongly believed in a non violent free market, (as the Silk Road strictly restricted violent material, such as Child Pornography, Assassination services and weapons. Unlike many other Tor Web services of the same genre). He gave many lectures around Texas concerning the game, however it did not take off as Ross would have liked. I wished to address Ross' libertarian views as I believe his intentions for the Silk Road were wholly from a economically experimental, libertarian and idealistic point of view. Morally Ross' ideas were completely innocent. The bare principle that we should be allowed to live freely should be, to me, fundamentally elementary. The intentions of the Prosecution however were illicit, detrimental to the sentencing, and barbarous. By banning Ross' principles and libertarian views from the Jury, they were given a very one sided, carefully constructed, completely false, impression of Ross. This is also a violation of the Brady Rule, as the Prosecution suppressed the true characteristics of Ross and his motivations behind the development of Silk Road from appearing in court.

(3)- Chuck Schumer prejudice/ Innocent before proven guilty:

- The third and final component expressing a true Brady violation is one of which states that “prejudice must have ensued.” Chuck Schumer (senior United States Senator and a member of the Democratic Party) Stated the following in a letter to an agent operating on the Silk Road case, just after the arrest of Ross Ulbricht.. “Congratulations, you got your man.” Clearly, prejudice has distinctly been ensued within this statement. It is common knowledge that every defendant has the right to remain “innocent before proven guilty,” However, in this case Mr. Schumer had apparently already tried and convicted Ross and in his eyes, Ross was DPR. If a U.S Senator thinks it admissible to disobey the blatant human rights and laws of the country, what hope do we have for the future of our justice system?

-The following statement was made during the United States v. Washington Trial. “The government’s failure to disclose evidence impeaching the central witness until after the first day of trial prejudiced defendant because the late disclosure prevented defense counsel from investigating and planning overall trial strategy.” This signifies just one of countless occasions and cases of which the Brady Rule has been violated by the government and court in an attempt to suppress impeaching evidence in favour of a Defendant. If we allow this blatant corruption within the “Justice system” to continue, what kind of a world will our future generations thrive in? America's right to free expression and overall Democratic principles and rapidly decaying and are taking the form of a Dictatorship.

I hope this piece has given you an insight into the extensive corruption the government initiate and participate in. For the future of America, your freedom, and for the sanity of our justice system, take a stand against this unlawful inequity, and make a positive impact on our society.

Thank you,

Emily Pont

#silk road #freeross #freerossulbricht #silk road trial #justice #us government #injustice #unlawful #brady rule #us justice system

A true depiction of the complete injustice and corruption within the Silk Road Trial and Sentencing that took place in January- February of 2015.

This excellent appeal perfectly represents every violation committed by the court and government themselves during Ross Ulbricht’s Trial and Sentencing. He was sentenced to double life without parole, plus another 40 years, which basically consists of a triple life sentence. All charges were non violent crimes, and the government provided no victims for any of these charges. Take the time to read through this appeal and see for yourself the barbaric misconduct that unveiled.

#freeross #freerossulbricht #silkroad #injustice #free ross