Aspies For Freedom

Autistic man gets 3-year sentence in ricin case
By Christine Clarridge

Seattle Times staff reporter

A mentally ill and disabled man was sentenced Tuesday to three years in a federal prison for violating his parole by trying to make the poison ricin.

Attorneys for 38-year-old Robert Alberg, who has a form of autism called Asperger's syndrome and has been diagnosed with clinical depression and other mental illnesses, argued for leniency in U.S. District Court, saying that Alberg's unsuccessful attempts to brew the poison from castor beans posed no risk to the public.

If anything, they said, Alberg's efforts were motivated by depression, loneliness and a desire to end his own life. They said he had once before ordered mercury, which is highly toxic, and rubbed it all over his body in an attempt to commit suicide.

U.S. Attorney Carl Blackstone said that while prosecutors were sympathetic to Alberg's disabilities and need for mental-health treatment, it was "time for a little tough love." Alberg was on probation after an earlier attempt to make ricin when he again was found to be experimenting with the ingredients of the deadly poison.

"The government was hoping we would not see Mr. Alberg again and that he would no longer have an interest in castor beans," said Blackstone, who had argued for a four-year-prison term. "We were wrong."

Alberg is the son of Tom Alberg, the managing director of Madrona Venture Group, an early investor in Amazon.com and a former executive of McCaw Cellular. He was arrested in April 2004 after federal investigators learned he had ordered 5 pounds of castor beans online and had been using them in an effort to make the deadly poison in his Kirkland apartment.

Federal prosecutors said they did not believe after the initial arrest that Alberg intended to harm anyone and they joined defense attorneys in recommending a sentence of five years probation. That allowed Alberg to receive intensive supervision and treatment after he pleaded guilty to possession of ricin in August 2004 and was placed on probation.

In June 2005, however, Alberg was arrested for violating the conditions of his probation by possessing castor-bean seeds that he had purchased online and had hidden away in the group home where he lived.

Alberg's attorneys were successful in persuading U.S. District Court Judge James L. Robart to recommend that Alberg serve his sentence at the federal prison in Rochester, Minn., where experts said he has less chance of being preyed upon by other inmates and more opportunity of getting mental-health treatment.

Tom Alberg, who attended Tuesday's sentencing, later issued a statement that read: "We had hoped for a shorter length of time, because the experts most familiar with Robert and his medical condition concur that the federal prison system can't provide the treatment he needs. We know that when Robert returns, he will need on-going treatment for the rest of his life."

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

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Anybody who knows a few things about castor beans is that they are very toxic.  If his intention to was to commit suicide, he did not need five pounds of beans to do it.  People have been poisoned by far less just by ingesting the beans without chemical processing.

He had intention to produce a refined and deadly poison, ricin.  He had probably intended not just on suicide.   Sorry, but he sounds like he was intending terrorism or maybe making ricin to sell to terrorist.

Speaking as a person of very intense special interests, I find it totally believable that he intended to manufacture ricin purely for the interest of doing it and possessing ricin.

I understand that this might seem unbelievable or even incredible to an NT, but an interest in deadly poisons is not in any way proof of intent to harm anyone at all.

Why should the amateur toxicologist be deemed a terrorist-in-the-making, but someone who who has identical interests but is payed and given a laboratory by a corporation or government department be seen as a valued member of society.

The difference between them is not one of intent, but the purely external factor of validation by an NT academic or corporate body.

Stella

????his interest was just to study ricin? but not kill himself with ricin?      

Sorry.  I do not believe it.  Look up poisoning by castor bean.  You will find that five pounds is too much unless that is the smallest available quantity for sale.

If he had such a great interest in the suject matter, he would have known that the quantity needed just to experiment (for curiosity) was wayyyyyy smaller than what he ended up ordering. Additionally, I thought the case was underline by E-Mails he had sent to relatives, fantasising about getting onto death row by way of manufacturing poison. Does not sound like he was not planning on using it...

I don't see why this should be treated any differently than Will Freund buying a gun and ammo. He had a 'thing' for guns too, and one could have argued that "he only bought it because it is his special interest" up until the point he actually used it. But he still ended up harming people in the end.

Amen! I think this guy deserves more than 3 years for such a mentally unbalanced thing.

After reading most of the articles I could find about Robert Alberg, I now think that he held a grudge against the world because no women wanted him.

Did anyone see the british film The Young Poisoners Handbook? It was based on a true story and the main character was somewhat aspie like, but his obsession was deadly poisons...and using them.

It's all about one word: accountability. He did the crime. He can do the time. I am tired of asspies who think that a DX is a blank check. It is not.

                            Jerry Newport

I agree completely!

[quote="Lonermutant"]I agree completely!


[quote="jerrynewport"]It's all about one word: accountability. He did the crime. He can do the time. I am tired of asspies who think that a DX is a blank check. It is not.

                            Jerry Newport[/quote

   Thanks for agreeing. I should have qualified my opinion by saying I was not talking about anyone on this list.

                                     Jerry

But in this case it wasn't just about possession. It was also about E-Mails and other communications to relatives where he fantasised about using the stuff and getting put on death row.

Also there could be other facts in the case that we are not privy to, and only the Judge and lawyers saw in the courtroom.

If the court had really believed he intended to commit acts of terrorism, he would without doubt have received a very much longer sentence.

So they did accept that the defendent was not mentally competent but nonetheless decided to sentence him to imprisonment in the United States, well-known for the extreme harshness and brutality of its prison system.

Stella

Nonsense!  I know a little about the effect of ricin on the human body and there is no way Robert Alberg intended to kill himself with ricin.  There are many better, quicker and less painless ways to commit suicide, if that was his goal.  He intended to use the ricin on someone else.  How else would he wind up on death row by manufacturing ricin?  Whether or not he has a mental disability, he needs constant supervision for much longer than three years.