Founder Silk Road Ross Ulbricht intends to challenge the verdict in the US Supreme Court

The founder of the illegal trading platform Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, is convinced that the rights granted to him by the Fourth and Sixth Amendments to the US Constitution were violated during the investigation and the subsequent trial. He is going to challenge a life sentence without the right to be released at the US Supreme Court. This is reported by Reason .

Ulbricht's lawyers believe that the legal doctrine of a third person arising in the case of Smith v. Maryland (1979) does not justify collecting information about Silk Road founder's online activity without a court warrant.

Despite the fact that in 1979 the Supreme Court ruled that the rights of a citizen to protect personal information in accordance with the Fourth Amendment did not apply to data that he voluntarily transferred to a third party. In the case of Smith, it was about phone calls, and in the Ulbricht case - Internet traffic, which is monitored by network providers.

Leading a failed appeal lawyer Cannon Shenmugam believes that tracking Ulbricht's IP address, as well as gaining access to his laptop without a court warrant, is an outrageous government intervention in the private life of a citizen that goes beyond the above legal doctrine.

In addition, the Appeals Court of the Second Circuit of the United States confirmed that some facts were not submitted to the jury, indicating a possible violation of the rights granted to Ulbricht by the Sixth Amendment (right to a fair trial, including a jury trial).

It is worth noting that the basis for such a severe sentence was not the drug trade, but the recognition of Ulbricht guilty of having ordered a series of murders that had never been committed. In court, it has not been proven that these crimes took place, but this did not affect the judge's determination. The lawyers of the founder of Silk Road consider this as a violation of the right to a fair trial and absurdity

Earlier, the Appeals Court of the second US district refused to consider Ulbricht's appeal, referring to the legal doctrine of a third party. After that, Ross Ulbricht created a petition calling on the Supreme Court to explain to the people of the USA how the 1979 precedent was being applied in the conditions of the current technological progress.

"If the Court considers that the data on Internet traffic are no different from the list of phone numbers and calls in the Smith case from the constitutional point of view, this is the same as saying that the journey on horseback is no different from the flight to the moon from material point of view, "the petition says.

Recall, in 2015, the court found Ross Ulbricht guilty of drug traffic through DarkNet Marketplace Silk Road, conspiracy to transport drugs, hacking computer networks and money laundering, as well as in the leadership of a criminal organization.

As a result, the founder of Silk Road was sentenced to double life imprisonment.

In early 2016, the lawyers of Ulbricht appealed to the US Court of Appeal, claiming that key evidence was hidden during the trial.