Michael Vick Sentencing

I'll agree with you on that. But being a convicted felon won't be the reason why Vick won't get endorsement money. Vick just isn't a great player. God's Linebacker has made tons of money on endorsments(Madden etc.) and investments. But he's made that money because he's a hall of fame linebacker.

 

I'll predict that whatever state time Vick gets will end up being served concurrently and he'll be out in 2009. But I also expect Goodell will tell him he has to wait another year as penance for lying to the NFL and the Falcons. No way they will let him walk out of jail and immediately onto a practice field. Sends the wrong message. And it might even be better for Vick to take that year off, get in shape, apply himself and look for the best situation.

 

And unless he starts flinging poo at the guards, he will. He's likely to be kept in protective custody, where he won't have a chance to make trouble. Of course, he won't have a chance to do much else, either. Though I suppose he could bang out 1,000 pushups and situps a day.

Also, in a startling development, Terence Moore plays the race card: http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/sportscolumns/entries/2007/12/10/vicks_reality_h.html

 

Didn't the CFL just pass a rule recently saying they'd honor NFL eligibility requirements? I couldn't Google it up; if that's the case, it means he's out of options to play professionally.

 

Just read the sentencing order on the AJC's site. Interestingly, there's a box to check to apply credit for time served. It's not checked. Looks like surrendering early didn't work out for him.

Other little notes: When he gets out and is on probation, he's not allowed to "incur new credit," so, in other words, no more loans. (As though anyone would loan him money.)

He's not allowed to buy, sell or own a dog. No surprise there.

He also gets no recommendation from the judge on a prison, so they may well send his ass to Oklahoma or some such.

 

That's amazing if it's true and he spent an extra few weeks in prison for nothing.

 

I dont' know if the feds have "good time", which cuts a sentence if you behave, but I do know Vick also has state charges to face as well. Which could give him more time behind the walls. Although it does give the faint whiff of double jeopardy.

 

Maybe the judge was going to give him 24 months and lopped a month off in his final decision.

 

As has been pointed out here two or three times, yes, they do. You can get as much as 15 percent of your sentence knocked off.

 

From a Yahoo story on Nov. 27:

Essentially, you can't be tried twice for the same "incident," for lack of a better word. In other words, say you and a friend decided to kidnap someone in Missouri, drive them to Mississippi and kill them there. You can't be tried in federal court for kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder and then get tried in Mississippi state court for murder. The kidnapping and conspiracy charges go with the murder charge in a federal case. They're separate crimes, but they happened in the same "incident."

I believe that's what Vick's lawyers are arguing and, personally, I agree with them.

 

If Barney Fife and the boys in Surry County had gotten their act together months ago, the feds probably wouldn't have launched their own investigation. Now Surry officials see that they weren't doing their job and they now are trying to do it.

I don't condone any of what Vick did, but I have to agree that it sounds like double jeopardy and unfair.

 

I don't think much will come of the state charges. In fact, I think that could end up backfiring on the state from a publicity standpoint. The public reaction could just as likely be ' look, enough is enough, the man's been charged and is in jail, why is there another trial for the same charges?' And despite the legality of the state charges, most normal joes are going to believe this is a double jeopardy situation without having the detailed legal facts.

Also, can't say I've been impressed in the least bit by Vick's attorneys. If OJ had had the same representation, he would have been executed, even if California didn't have the death penalty at the time.

One thing for certain: if Vick had just one or two better minds around him before and throughout this deal, he would have gotten off with a much lighter penalty.