Court filings show that New York federal judge Jed Rakoff has rejected the request of a 61-year-old toy merchant-turned Silk Road vendor for a compassionate release amid the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than than ten,000 New Yorkers.

Judge Rakoff institute that the inmate had failed to nowadays an "extraordinary and compelling" instance for his release on April 13.

The former Silk Road vendor, Hugh Haney, had requested a temporary release on April 8. His representation, Martin Cohen, argued that the Manhattan Metropolitan Detention Center was on the verge of a severe COVID-xix outbreak — asserting that merely seven of i,700 inmates had then been tested for coronavirus, three of which had been confirmed positive.

Haney's argument justifies releasing "every federal inmate" over 60

The judge emphasized that the prisoner "is less than 65 years onetime and — unlike many of the prisoners who have applied in contempo days for release considering they suffer from asthma, diabetes, heart disease, or other deleterious wellness conditions that brand them unusually vulnerable to the furnishings of COVID-19 — Haney is in reasonably proficient health."

While Judge Rakoff noted that "Haney's historic period of 61 places him at a higher gamble of experiencing complications from COVID-19 than the general prison population," he asserted that the statement underpinning their request would justify the release of "every federal inmate in the state to a higher place the historic period of 60."

Haney sold oxycodone over the dark web

Haney has served ix months of a 42-month sentence for selling oxycodone on Silk Road in 2022. While the toy merchant had quit that year subsequently amassing a modest $10,000 in Bitcoin (BTC), Haney was arrested in July 2022 after attempting to liquidate his BTC holdings which were then valued at $19 one thousand thousand.

Guess Rakoff allowed Haney the opportunity to appeal the ruling on the basis that his lawyer provided ineffective representation, yet, he posited that said appeal would comprise a "doubtful proposition."