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Notes -
Ulbricht's sentence was based off of the idea that he ordered killings, which was shown "by a preponderance of evidence." This is not how we are supposed to do criminal law in the US; I have no idea how or why none of the appeals went anywhere. And no matter what you think of selling drugs, no one gets a double life sentence just for that.
It's also a question of fairness--I don't believe that anyone else involved with the original or subsequent silk roads got anywhere near as long a sentence.
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