section_path: Post-conviction/Appeal attempts
section_name: Appeal attempts
paragraph_text: Appeal attempts
  
  Ulbricht appealed his conviction and sentence to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in January 2016, claiming that the prosecution illegally withheld evidence of DEA agents' malfeasance in the investigation of Silk Road, of which two agents were convicted. Ulbricht also argued his sentence was too harsh. Oral arguments were heard in October 2016, and the Second Circuit issued its decision in May 2017, upholding Ulbricht's conviction and sentence in an opinion by Judge Gerard E. Lynch. In a 139-page opinion, the court affirmed the district court's denial of Ulbricht's motion to suppress certain evidence, affirmed the district court's decisions on discovery and the admission of expert testimony, and rejected Ulbricht's argument that a life sentence was procedurally or substantively unreasonable.
  
  In December 2017, Ulbricht filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the Court to hear his appeal on evidentiary and sentencing issues. Ulbricht's petition asked whether the warrantless seizure of an individual's internet traffic information, without probable cause, violated the Fourth Amendment, and whether the Sixth Amendment permits judges to find facts necessary to support an otherwise unreasonable sentence. Twenty-one amici filed five amicus curiae briefs in support of Ulbricht, including the National Lawyers Guild, American Black Cross, Reason Foundation, Drug Policy Alliance, and Downsize DC Foundation. The U.S. government filed a response in opposition to Ulbricht's petition. On June 28, 2018, the Supreme Court denied the petition, declining to consider Ulbricht's appeal.
  
  In a 2020 Vanity Fair article, it was asserted that Ulbricht had rejected a plea deal that would have potentially given him a decade-long sentence, stating that "According to more than a dozen investigators and attorneys involved in the case... Ulbricht's sentence could have been a lot less severe." However, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Howard, who was co-responsible for prosecuting the case, stated that a plea deal with a mandatory minimum of 10 years was "discussed at the final pretrial conference on December 17, 2014", the maximum sentence of life imprisonment was strongly recommended based on the sentencing guideline and testified that "no such plea offer was ever extended to Ross William Ulbricht, or conveyed to his then-counsel" before Ulbricht's indictment.
  
  Ulbricht appealed his conviction and sentence to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in January 2016, claiming that the prosecution illegally withheld evidence of DEA agents' malfeasance in the investigation of Silk Road, of which two agents were convicted. Ulbricht also argued his sentence was too harsh. Oral arguments were heard in October 2016, and the Second Circuit issued its decision in May 2017, upholding Ulbricht's conviction and sentence in an opinion by Judge Gerard E. Lynch. In a 139-page opinion, the court affirmed the district court's denial of Ulbricht's motion to suppress certain evidence, affirmed the district court's decisions on discovery and the admission of expert testimony, and rejected Ulbricht's argument that a life sentence was procedurally or substantively unreasonable.
  
  In December 2017, Ulbricht filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the Court to hear his appeal on evidentiary and sentencing issues. Ulbricht's petition asked whether the warrantless seizure of an individual's internet traffic information, without probable cause, violated the Fourth Amendment, and whether the Sixth Amendment permits judges to find facts necessary to support an otherwise unreasonable sentence. Twenty-one amici filed five amicus curiae briefs in support of Ulbricht, including the National Lawyers Guild, American Black Cross, Reason Foundation, Drug Policy Alliance, and Downsize DC Foundation. The U.S. government filed a response in opposition to Ulbricht's petition. On June 28, 2018, the Supreme Court denied the petition, declining to consider Ulbricht's appeal.
  
  In a 2020 Vanity Fair article, it was asserted that Ulbricht had rejected a plea deal that would have potentially given him a decade-long sentence, stating that "According to more than a dozen investigators and attorneys involved in the case... Ulbricht's sentence could have been a lot less severe." However, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Howard, who was co-responsible for prosecuting the case, stated that a plea deal with a mandatory minimum of 10 years was "discussed at the final pretrial conference on December 17, 2014", the maximum sentence of life imprisonment was strongly recommended based on the sentencing guideline and testified that "no such plea offer was ever extended to Ross William Ulbricht, or conveyed to his then-counsel" before Ulbricht's indictment.