[jjallen]

This is a good lesson about not forgetting that much of life is not binary. Here we have someone who was convicted of doing illegal things. There is also strong evidence that he hired and paid someone to kill five people.

So the question isn't free or don't free him. The question is "how long should he be in jail for?". There's a middle ground here.

Many people, including the OP website just say "free" him. I don't know. That is a binary option which implies total innocence. And I don't think total innocence is the case here.

So the question really needs to be: for how many years should this guy be in prison for. And the answer to me, primarily because he was planning on killing five people is quite a long time. Certainly longer than the ten years or so he's been in there.

[edited for some increased readability and formatting]

[tchalla]

I wish we though about almost everything probabilistically instead of raging over false binaries.

[q1w2]

For attempting to kill 5 people and for indirectly dealing in some horrible drugs, counterfeit money, and illegal guns... 20 years seems reasonable.

[pcthrowaway]

> And the answer to me, primarily because he was planning on killing five people is quite a long time.

Would you agree that he shouldn't be in prison for the crimes he was convicted of at least? Because he wasn't tried or convicted of murder-for-hire (yet?)

[scoofy]

He isn’t in prison for murder. He is in prison for operating possibly the largest illegal drug market to ever exist.

The conviction and sentencing limits are of course there for anyone to see.

[from]

Silk Road did like $50-100 million in volume if you measure by bitcoin prices at the time. Tenderloin and a few neighborhoods in San Francisco alone probably have more annual volume than that.

[zamalek]

In my opinion, he should be in there not a minute longer than it takes to rehabilitate him.

But we penalize, not rehabilitate, and some people are beyond rehabilitation.