The hitman was a conman for a murder on a fictitious person. While he fully believed he was committing a real assassination, you can't convict people for killing imaginary people.

This doesn’t sound like an imaginary person

https://www.vice.com/en/article/murdered-silk-road-employee-...

I'm not convinced that you looked at the article you linked.

> That’s because he was the Silk Road employee implicated in an elaborate, and fake, murder-for-hire scheme, created in part by a corrupt Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent.

The murder was fake not the murder order.

>DPR contacted one of his trusted drug dealer contacts, Nob, and asked him to kill Green for $40,000. Shortly after, Nob sent DPR photos of Green covered in Campbell’s Chicken & Stars soup and victim of an apparent asphyxiation, to prove the murder had been carried out.

> Unbeknown to DPR, Nob was no drug dealer. In fact, Nob was Carl Mark Force IV, the very same DEA agent who had arrested Green.

There weee two murder for hire. Look up the story wirh FriendlyChemist.

But does it matter if he ordered a real murder?

The trial for the real one was scrapped because of his other convictions.

Both were fake. One was a con by the DEA and the other one a con by a single guy posing as executioner, victim and a slew of other colorful characters.

The DEA murder was fake but not his order of the murder.

The man just didn’t die because the killer was a DEA agent in reality.

That’s still a felony.

You can convict for murder for hire in that circumstance.

Yes but he did get scammed as that wasn't a real hitman

Intent matters!! For all he knew, Ulbricht had killed those guys and he was fine with that

If intent matters, why can't people be tried for crimes before they commit them?

He took paid someone money (a concrete action) with the intent to have someone murdered. This isn’t rocket science

People are usually jailed for hiring contract killers, even if the contract killer happens to be a FBI informant and the murder does not end up getting done.

There wasn't any evidence that actually happened. It appears that it may have been fabricated by the same investigators that later robbed him of some millions of dollars worth of bitcoin. Then when it went to trial the murder-for-hire charges were completely dropped due to lack of evidence.

He was convicted of:

  1. Conspiracy to traffic narcotics
  2. Continuing Criminal Enterprise (CCE) (sometimes referred to as the “kingpin” charge)
  3. Computer Hacking Conspiracy
  4. Conspiracy to Traffic in Fraudulent Identity Documents
  5. Money Laundering Conspiracy

I think they were dropped because in 1 out of the 6 cases, the investigation was tainted because the associated government agents committed their own crimes, and also maybe but I can't prove it everyone thought that prosecuting someone who has been sentenced to 2 life sentences + 40 years is a waste of time.

Wasn't that charge dropped though?