Poor Micheal Vick
After hearing R.L. White of the NAACP defend Micheal Vick, I can't help but wonder, how can he go before the public and say that he does believe that Vick may be guilty of some wrongdoing, but could be taking responsibility for crimes that he did not commit?
Vick has got the best attorneys his money can afford and he is going to take the credit for crimes he didn't commit??? I am not a legal scholar like my brother, but I have watched enough Law & Order episodes to have a little glimpse on how the legal system operates.
There are innocent people that get indicted by grand juries, then have to wait for the case to come to trial. There are innocent people who are convicted of crimes. There are people who break the law and never face charges. I think back to Megan's accident and how she was written a ticket for improper lane change, but then when her case went to court, her lawyer was there to guide her and her case was dismissed. But does that make her any less guilty of not obeying the law because her case was dismissed?
The legal team Vick employed know the facts about what their client did and for them to tell him it was in his best interest to plead guilty now before a jury trial takes place is good enough for me to know the man is guilty.
Was Vick targeted because of his fame? Perhaps he was but realize, his dogs weren't fighting dogs from his own kennel. The feds need to go on and prosecute other people who are involved in this blood bath of a "sport" .
Vick has got the best attorneys his money can afford and he is going to take the credit for crimes he didn't commit??? I am not a legal scholar like my brother, but I have watched enough Law & Order episodes to have a little glimpse on how the legal system operates.
There are innocent people that get indicted by grand juries, then have to wait for the case to come to trial. There are innocent people who are convicted of crimes. There are people who break the law and never face charges. I think back to Megan's accident and how she was written a ticket for improper lane change, but then when her case went to court, her lawyer was there to guide her and her case was dismissed. But does that make her any less guilty of not obeying the law because her case was dismissed?
The legal team Vick employed know the facts about what their client did and for them to tell him it was in his best interest to plead guilty now before a jury trial takes place is good enough for me to know the man is guilty.
Was Vick targeted because of his fame? Perhaps he was but realize, his dogs weren't fighting dogs from his own kennel. The feds need to go on and prosecute other people who are involved in this blood bath of a "sport" .
posted by Suzy Neal @ Thursday, August 23, 2007
3 Comments:
At 5:10 PM,
Len said…
I may be a legal scholar only because I am a law student. I admit I do not know much, but one thing that has struck me as I go through school is how little I as a non-lawyer really knew about the law and the outcome of cases. For example, you often hear about crazy-insane jury awards in civil cases. This just can't happen. The US Supreme Court has much limited the punitive damages that a jury can award, and so have many state legislatures. But in many states the jury doesn't know that, so when it awards a gizillion dollars for an injury, that fact gets reported, but when the judge subsequently reduces the award to some amount with far fewer zeros, that does not get reported. Same thing for trials. Very few cases go to court, and the ones that do, like OJ, get may be reported because of the star power. Almost all cases get settled without trial. Like maybe Vick. His lawyers probably said to him "dude, you will lose and lose bad. Take the plea. A jury will not like you when it hears what you did." Probably a good move, and likely typical.
As for his defenders, well, they are living in an alternate world from me apparenly. You are guilty if you plead guilty or are convicted. So if he pleads guilty, he is guilty. Period. Unlike Megan who never had her case heard by a court. She had a ticket, plead not guilty, and the court established the fact that she was not guilty by dismissing the case.
I also do not buy the "targeted for his fame" excuse. What DA wants to try a case with a famous defendant? Every move the office makes will be under intense press scrutiny, all the court employees will be harrassed by the press and the public, and resources that should go to other cases will be sucked up dealing with the circus.
Now one thing I agree with is that if Vick confesses and is punished by fines and prison, then that's it for his punishment when he is released. He can do what he wants. If the NFL, the Falcons, and Nike want a guy who killed dogs with his bare hands associated with their brand that is up to them. But they would be insane to do it.
At 11:38 AM,
Suzy Neal said…
Agreed!
What I have recently learned is that if a grand jury indicts you, they can arrest you and seize your business and assets and its up to you to figure out how you will live until your case is resolved.
Just on an indictment. The accused also came to find out the DA lied to the grand jury by holding up an envelope and saying he had a written confession, which he did not.
Now, said accused has his business ruined, reputation soiled, as this was all televised and reported in the paper and is needing about 150k for his legal defense.
At 5:37 PM,
Betsy said…
Today's turn in the case -- the plea in which Vick admits to funding dog fighting as well as killing dogs -- represents what's wrong with our legal system. This was carefully crafted to get around the NFL's "moral clause" regarding gambling. So you can pay your friends to run your dog fighting kennel and you can kill dogs by hanging or electrocution -- but at least you didn't gamble!
I hope my brother knows better than to represent scum like this when he becomes a big shot lawyer.
Post a Comment
<< Home