Alert   10/27/08   Ready to have Michael Vick Back?

 

PLEASE CROSS-POST!

 

Time Sensitive – Motion on Thursday, 10/30/08

 

IS IT TIME FOR MR. VICK TO SUIT-UP FOR THE 2009 SEASON?

 

ARE YOU READY FOR THAT?

 

DO YOU WANT MR. VICK BACK PLAYING FOOTBALL WITHOUT SERVING SO MUCH AS A MINUTE IN VIRGINIA FOR HIS DOGFIGHTING ACTIVITIES? NOT ONE MINUTE FOR BREAKING VIRGINIA LAW?

 

DO YOU THINK THAT’S OK?

 

Think back. The conviction of Mr. Vick followed prosecution by the federal government, which prosecuted when Virginia’s Surry County apparently wouldn’t do so.

 

So what if dogs were executed by drowning, hanging, electrocution, throwing. Nothing was done to Mr. Vick by Virginia, even though he broke Virginia law.

 

Though state charges are now pending, Surry County hasn’t begun the trial of Mr. Vick, so he never answered publicly for violations of Virginia law. Mr. Vick’s Virginia trial has been postponed repeatedly although he was indicted in Surry County over a year ago.

 

With no one breathing down his neck, no one saying Virginia is next in line to convict him for his illegal dogfighting activities, Mr. Vick has faded from view. Now it appears a plan has been devised which gets Mr. Vick into a federal re-entry program (“halfway house”) and gets him off the hook in Virginia, and if a team will hire him (and you know one will), he’s back on the gridiron.

 

Here’s the plan.

 

Michael Vick was sentenced on 12/10/07 to a jail term of 23 months; that means he leaves federal prison (Leavenworth, KS) 11/09 under the existing schedule. However, good behavior would reduce the jail term to 18 months, resulting in a Summer, 2009, release from prison, in time for the 2009 football season.

 

If this all falls into place, Mr. Vick will be released 7/20/09. And he may enter a halfway house six months earlier than that!

 

On 10/30/08, Mr. Vick plans, by video teleconference, to plead guilty to Virginia charges.

 

If accepted by the Judge, Mr. Vick would then be allowed to enter a halfway house program.

 

But Mr. Vick is ineligible to be in such a halfway house program if pending charges against him are unresolved, i.e., Virginia charges.

 

So, Mr. Vick’s legal team, wanting him out and playing football, and knowing Surry County has no heart for prosecuting a man even if he tortures and kills animals, gets rid of Mr. Vick’s existing pending local charges by pleading him guilty to them, admitting he broke Virginia law.

 

It might be that Surry County will try to look good by recommending a jail sentence for Mr. Vick, but that may well be immediately suspended, even though additional probation time could be added to the current three years of federal probation.

 

Pleading guilty to Virginia dogfighting charges without the imposition of jail time could allow Mr. Vick’s early release from the federal penitentiary and into a halfway house for the remainder of his 23-month sentence. And it seems a halfway house will allow him to play football. And there are quite a few halfway houses in cities with NFL teams.

 

In Virginia, Mr. Vick faces a felony charge of dogfighting and another felony charge of torturing and killing dogs (cruelty to animals). Each charge carries up to five years in prison, but the legal team’s plans no doubt don’t include Mr. Vick serving one minute.

 

Has Mr. Vick been rehabilitated? Since sentencing on 12/10/07? We don’t think so - not yet.

And so we don’t think the plan for Mr. Vick is fair.

 

If you agree, and think, as we do, that Mr. Vick should serve time in Virginia for what he did in Virginia, let people know.

 

It is the Judge who will make the final decision on the motion to suspend actual jail time for Mr. Vick.

 

YOU MUST WORK FAST. THE TELECONFERENCE MOTION WHICH MAY DECIDE ALL THIS IS TO BE HELD ON THURSDAY, 10/30 AT 11 AM!

 

HERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU CAN DO:

 

1. Start by letting your own state delegate and state senator know that you do not want Mr. Vick released to play football.

 

Also ask your legislators to reach Virginia’s Attorney General (# 5 below) and push the Attorney General to intervene.

 

If you need help identifying your legislators and their contact information, use this information taken from the website of the Virginia General Assembly:

If you don't know who represents you, you can find out by using Who's My Legislator.

 

2. Let Gerald Poindexter, the Commonwealth Attorney for Surry County, know you feel it is his moral duty to prosecute Mr. Vick to the fullest extent of the law, and to ensure he serves time upon conviction or admission of guilt.

 

Gerald Poindexter   Ghana77@aol.com

757-294-3118

fax: 757-294-3560

 

 

3. Let the Judges of Surry County’s Circuit Court know you will support their imposing a sentence that requires time to be served by the guilty party.

 

Hon. W. Allan Sharrett is the Chief Judge for Surry County’s Circuit Court, and

Hon. Samuel E. Campbell is the Presiding Judge for Surry County’s Circuit Court.

 

Both judges can be reached through the Clerk for the Surry County Circuit Court:

Clerk Gail P. Clayton   gclayton@courts.state.va.us    

757-294-3161

fax: 757-294-0471

 

 

4. Let the Surry County sheriff know how you feel.

 

Sheriff Harold D. Brown   surrysheriff@ruralam.net

757-294-5264

 

  

5. Let Virginia’s Attorney General know you are dissatisfied with the prospect that Mr. Vick will not serve time even though he pleads guilty, and dissatisfied that diligent local pursuing of a conviction never happened. You will be told Mr. Poindexter is an elected official as Commonwealth Attorney, and that Mr. Poindexter’s constituents in Surry County must make such complaints. Nevertheless, this is an embarrassment for Virginia. This isn’t fair. Let Mr. McDonnell hear that from you that this is not the sort of behavior to be expected from one aspiring to be Virginia’s next Governor.

 

Attorney General Robert McDonnell   McDonnell@oag.state.va.us

804-786-2071

 

 

6. Let your own Commonwealth Attorney know of your dissatisfaction with the potential outcome in Surry County, and ask your Commonwealth Attorney what they would have done.

 

And ask your Commonwealth Attorney to lobby the Virginia Attorney General about this as well.

 

You will be able to find your Commonwealth Attorney by going to the website for your county or town.

 

 

7. Finally, write a letter to the editor for your local paper about this.

 

 

You know how to make a difference. Do it!

 

 

Lillian Clancy and Don Marro