Today was jury selection day at the very-important trial of Ross Ulbricht in New York City. Free Keene bloggers were out front of the federal district court in Manhattan, trying to get the word out about the insane penalty that Ross Ulbricht is facing if he’s found guilty at trial. Ross is accused of running the Silk Road underground marketplace and is facing decades in prison for it. Ross’ mother, Lyn has stood by her son and even joined the Free State Project. She has said that Ross will come to Porcfest in 2015 if he is not imprisoned!
However, getting him out of the cage he’s been in for 15 months awaiting trial is no easy task. The prosecutors are well funded and working within a system where they are on the same side as the judge. In the insane, inhumane US court system, jurors are generally precluded from knowing the penalty faced by the accused, as it may make them more likely to nullify a bad law if they feel the penalty is too severe.
Ademo Freeman from Copblock.org holds a sign in front of the Manhattan Federal District Court
They are deathly afraid of jurors knowing about nullification. Indeed, according to Derrick J, potential jurors are being asked if they saw any signs outside the court. If so, the prosecution is dismissing them.
Several signs came from a heroic effort by Derrick J to help Free Ross that included liberty activists cranking out signage to bring for Ulbricht supporters, including:
“30 YEARS TO LIFE FOR AN HONEST WEBSITE?”
“WEB HOSTING IS NOT A CRIME. WTF?”
Jay Freeville, right, shows his support for the freedom to buy and sell.
NH liberty activists have been doing jury rights outreach for years and defendants at trial in New Hampshire have been able to raise jury nullification as a defense, but this is federal court. No cell phones are allowed in. No cameras. Not even for the media. Just pencil and paper.
Ross Ulbricht is the man accused of running the Silk Road underground market. He’s facing life in prison and his jury trial begins tomorrow morning. If Ulbricht did run the Silk Road, he’s a hero for making the black market a safer place. If he didn’t, then he’s a man wrongfully accused. Either way, he should be found not guilty by the jury.
Liberty activists from Keene including Derrick J Freeman, James Cleaveland, and Jay Freeville and activists from Manchester Andre Rosa and William Kostric are heading down to Manhattan today! They’ll be meeting up with liberty activists from as far away as Austin, Texas and will be doing everything they can to help Free Ross and bring attention to his case. Stay tuned here at Free Keene for more.
Recorded Nov 20th, 2014
Cecelia Fairchild joins us in studio to discuss her collaboration with Shire Dude on the hit new series #ItsLikeThisToo. On this week’s episode Cecelia talks about her decade of Shire time, 101 reasons film debut, Ladies of Manchester podcast?, we try to trigger the CODY of Off The Air Live, Cecelia gives dating advice in the community, FreeKeene SQUAD hits mainstream, coming out of the closet as a Free Stater, sharing of weight loss stories, Shire Dude goes full Soylent and gives coffee techniques, liberty media ideas and criticism, and what its like meeting people you know about when you move. The Rebel Love Show is a once a week broadcast from Manchester and is available on Itunes, Stitcher, YouTube, and your favorite podcasting app!
The BIT Movie’s Scott Glass with Mark Edge, Darryl W. Perry, and Ian Freeman
Launched just three days ago in Toronto, The BIT Movie crew hit the road on their tour of what will include 40 cities in 30 days. Their goal is to spend only bitcoin while meeting and documenting the diverse bitcoin community across North America.
