A San Francisco man who created the online drug-selling website Silk Road has asked an appeals court in New York to toss out his conviction and life prison sentence.
Ross Ulbricht's attorney wrote in papers submitted to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday he deserves a new trial and sentencing by a different judge.
Manhattan federal Judge Katherine Forrest sentenced Ulbricht last May to life after his February conviction for operating the website for nearly three years until his 2013 arrest at a San Francisco library.
Defense attorney Joshua Dratel says the judge unfairly excluded from the trial information about corrupt investigators and blocked him from introducing other evidence that would've helped Ulbricht. He says the judge was unreasonable at sentencing, holding Ulbricht responsible for six overdose deaths linked to Silk Road.
