Reflections From a Murky Pond

What is the point of the United States having laws and codified punishments for transgressions of the laws if the courts refuse to enforce them?

What is most likely to soon happen is beyond belief and should be beyond America’s countenance.

SURRY, Va (AP):

Former NFL quarterback Michael Vick plans to plead guilty to state dogfighting charges, a step that could allow him to qualify for an early release from federal prison and into a halfway house, court papers show.

In a motion filed Oct. 15 in Surry County Circuit Court, Vick’s attorneys asked to have him enter his plea by video teleconference. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Oct. 30, Surry County Circuit Court administrator Sally Neblett said Tuesday.

The court papers note that allowing Vick to appear on two-way video would save the government the considerable expense of transporting him from prison in Leavenworth, Kan., to Surry County. His guilty plea would also allow him to pursue a halfway house program.

Under federal rules, Vick is ineligible to be released to a Residential Re-entry Center in the federal system until any pending charges against him are resolved.

In a statement, Vick attorneys Billy Martin and Lawrence Woodward said their client “is committed to taking responsibility for his actions. He is hopeful that, through this motion, the trial court will allow him to finally resolve these matters and put the charges behind him so that he can begin to focus on his future and to prepare to be reunited with his family.”

The plea deal, if approved, also would satisfy the county’s need to hold him accountable for the grisly crimes he bankrolled and participated in at a rural house he owned there.

“I’m not trying to make him suffer,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Gerald Poindexter said in a telephone interview. “I’m just trying to make him account for what he’s done.”

Vick pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges tied to the dogfighting operation last summer and is serving a 23-month term. Three convicted co-defendants also face local charges. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons lists Vick’s projected release date as July 20, 2009.

Vick will have three years of federal probation upon his release from prison, and the deal offered by Poindexter would tack on an unspecified jail sentence, which would be suspended, and an additional year of probation in the county, he said.

Poindexter said he’s not sure how quickly the judge would rule on the motion.

If permitted by a judge, Vick’s video participation in the plea hearing would not be the first time he has participated electronically. Prison officials in Kansas have allowed the former Atlanta Falcons star to listen via telephone line to each of his several bankruptcy hearings in recent months.

– Hank Kurz Jr.
Associated Press sports writer, Richmond, VA.

How else can this obscenity be described other than as a complete betrayal of justice? Has America reached the point of depravity that vile, subhuman ghetto thugs like Sick Vick are to be coddled because they can play a sport? Does anyone actually think something like Sick Vick can be rehabilitated?

Some Americans felt that Sick Vick should have been executed for his gross and heinous crimes. Instead it looks like Vick will get some of the remainder of his 23-month federal sentence commuted to a halfway house program, and will not spend one lone day in a Virginia prison for his dogfighting crimes.

A little reminder of Michael “Sick” Vick’s crimes:

If Attorney Gerald Poindexter perpetrates this obscenity and allows this subhuman thug to walk free, I hope that some right thinking Americans who remember Justice and realize the Law no longer supports it find Sick Vick one fine day or night and do the right thing.

The canine community, realizing that neither the ASPCA nor PETA could provide proactive protection from thugs like Michael “Sick” Vick, has adopted their own countermeasures to some of the evils and risks of dogfighting:

moar cute puppy pictures

And remember the Sick Vick Chew Toy makes a perfect training aid for your canine knight in shining armor.

UPDATE: While I’m linking to this image at LOLDogs, the original image is from the website of a professional armorer. His site is PITBULL ARMORY.

According to a CNN report Michael “Sick” Vick has been sentenced to 23 months in a federal prison for financing a dogfighting ring and helping to kill the dogs that did not perform well. The punishment was meted out at the end of a 90-minute sentencing hearing in federal court in Richmond, Virginia.

The ghetto thug appropriately received his sentence dressed in a black-and-white striped prison suit. He offered his apologies to his family and to U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson. Judge Hudson was unmoved to sympathy.

You need to apologize also to the millions of young people who look up to you! I’m convinced it was not a momentary lack of judgment on your part. You were a full partner.

– Judge Hudson

The judge added that he wasn’t sure Vick had fully accepted responsibility for his actions. The judge handed down 23 month prison sentence, which was significantly longer than the sentence of 12 to 18 months that were recommended by federal prosecutors but less than half of the 5 years Vick could have been sentenced to.

Say goodbye, Vick! You’re down for 23 months in a federal prison. I’m hoping the other inmates treat you the way you deserve, but if they don’t, the state of Virginia has stated they intend to file their own charges against you.