>It was dismissed with prejudice, and can’t be tried again

But there were in total six murder-for-hire allegations against Ross Ulbricht. That Maryland case in your link [0] was only one of them.

That Maryland one was also a case in which Carl Force, a corrupt federal agent, was deeply involved. The New York trial which incarcerated Ulbricht avoided considering that single allegation, specifically because of the corrupt agent's involvement. [1]

(Confusingly, there were also six allegations of drug-related deaths. These were completely unrelated with the six murder allegations.)

It's notable that, in that Maryland document you linked, the US Attorney could have moved to dismiss the charge without prejudice, meaning that it could be retried, but he chose not to do that.

But he then continues, to say, without explaining why, that Ulbricht was already serving a life sentence which had been affirmed on appeal in New York. The implication is that the US Attorney is hinting that there's no point ever pursuing the 'attempted murder' angle, because Ulbricht is already locked up for life (Narrator: he was wrong).

Here's a summary

* One murder-for-hire allegation (Maryland): Indicted, but dismissed with prejudice by US Attorney

* Five murder-for-hire allegations (New York): Not indicted/charged, not decided by jury, but included in sentencing decision

* Six drug-related death allegations (New York): Not indicted/charged, not decided by jury, but included in sentencing decision

*

What I understand is that the New York jury was allowed to know about the attempted murder-for-hire and the drug-related death claims, but not about the corrupt federal agents.

The murder-for-hire allegations, meanwhile, were allowed to influence his sentencing (and the rejection of his appeal) due to "a preponderance of evidence" as decided by the judge, which would not be sufficient grounds for criminal convictions such as murder, which require evidence "beyond reasonable doubt".

This was not justice's finest hour.

*

[0] Maryland dismissal: https://freeross.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Doc_14_Dismi...

[1] New York's appeal rejection decision: https://web.archive.org/web/20221213001237/https://pdfserver...