Who else thinks Michael Vick is STUPID for pleading guilty?

Question

The NFL will BAN him, mark my words. So what if a couple of convicted felons testify against him. All his lawyer would have to do is make sure the jury is 1/2 black and he'll be acquitted. The prosecution could drag dog carcasses into the courtroom, have the Pope testify and they STILL wouldn't convict him. Who else thinks this plea is a mistake?

Answer 1

would you risk 5 years in prison to test your theory?

Answer 2

I do not think you are understanding the situation here. Vick is in deep trouble, he knows he did something wrong, and his defense went down the drain when his co-defendents accepted plea bargains to testify against Vick. He is facing 5 years plus a huge fine. 5 Years is a long time for anyone to do. The chances of Vick getting an aquittal was almost slim to none. He has, basically, no defense left. The dogs were killed at his house, his co-defendents are willing to throw the rap at him, whether he did it or not is not important at the stage. Whats important is that the FBI believed Vick was guilty, and got people to say it.
Now the prosecutors give Vick a plea bargain, and Vick didnt really want it. He wants to drag it out, but his lawyers knew he dug himself into too deep of a hole. He had a chance before, but when two guys are willing to testify and the FBI is working on the case 24/7, its probably in his best interest to take the deal. Obviously, the deal is more lenient that what he would have recieved if convicted, so bascially his lawyers told him" hey mike, if you dont take this right now, we are not sure we can win this case for you. If your convicted, your gonna be DEEP sh*t and no one is gonna bail you out". Vick has no choice but to accept.

Answer 3

You have been watching too many movies. It doesn't work like that, and incidentally, his lawyer, Billy Martin, is one of the top criminal defenders in the country (a former US attorney, the division of the DOJ that is currently prosecuting Vick). And before anyone starts babbling that his lawyer screwed him over, y'all should know he's black too.

Vick pleaded guilty b/c.

First, the DOJ's conviction record is ridiculously, 92% of people who are indicted by the DOJ plead guilty and of the other 8%, 7% are convicted and 1% are acquitted. DOJ never brings a case unless their proof is air tight and in Vick's case - it was. 4 witnesses provided the DOJ with direct evidence, proof that he was involved, and his two "friends" also testified he was involved. He would have been convicted.

Second, "and all his lawyer has to do is make sure 1/2 the jury is black"??? - that is quite possibly the dumbest comment that I have heard about this case so far. FYI - this law was passed in May 2007, every black member of congress voted in favor of this law. The 39 members who voted against it were white. The prosecutor and sherriff in virginia who originally investigated vick are black. The NAACP and SLDC withdrew their support of vick weeks ago. Al Sharpton and Russell Simmons pressured Nike and Reebok to drop him. Need I go on? Anyone intelligent enough to sit on a jury is intelligent enough to know this case is not about race. Moreover, US Attorneys, the guys who are prosecuting Vick, are the top lawyers in the country - only 93 appointed by the President of the US. Any bullshit by the Jury and they would have pushed for a mis-trial, then vick would be retried and be in even more trouble.

Third, Vick pleaded guility when he did b/c the DOJ was going to file a superseding indictement on Monday morning and add racketeering. He was originally charged w/ conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 5 years. Racketeering carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.

In addition, the state of virginia (black sherrif and prosecutor) also announced it would also be filing an indicment against vick too -which means he is facing a state trial with maximum sentence of another 20 years. Incidentally, just b/c he pleaded guility to the federal charges does not eliminate the state charges - he still has to deal with those, and now that he has pleaded guility, has admitted the allegations in the indictment, he is basically screwed on a state level too.

Add it up people -if Vick didn't plead guility to the federal charges then between federal racketeering and the state charges he was facing 40 years.

And anyone who thinks Judge Hudson (the judge who will be sentencing vick) is going to be giving vick a big hug, know that Hudson is one of the toughest judges in the country and he let Vick know that he is not bound by federal sentencing guidlines, b/c the guidelines are advisory, not mandatory. A word about Judge Hudson:

"Legal experts describe U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson as a tough but fair jurist who, in five years on the federal bench, has become known for handing down stiff sentences . . . Hudson is "generally known as a hard sentencer".

Last, anyone who thinks Vick is going to some cushy country club prison is also crazy. "Club Fed", it was previously a destiniation for white collar criminals. Vick's crimes are not "white collar" - and while white collar criminals were usually sent to decent facilities, about a year ago even white collar criminal status was not a guarantee for a low security prison, and if fact, most white collars are no longer being sent to club fed- which means Vick certainly won't.

Crime doesn't pay.

Answer 4

He's probably trying to plea-bargain and keep the case as quiet as possible. The evidence and testimony against him was so strong, and the police were so careful to handle the case properly and not let it turn into another OJ-fiasco, that any jury would have been likely to convict him. Sure, some black people are eager to exonerate a fellow black person of any crime, but it's racist to claim the ENTIRE black community would do so, and it's naive to think that the prosecuting attorney wouldn't remove any clearly biased jury member during the jury selection process.

Answer 5

Not really, considering the feds were going to tack on racketeering charges that could lead to 10 plus years in jail.

Federal court is different from state courts anyway, they don't allow nearly as much BS and if you've ever noticed when a celebrity gets off with breaking the law, like OJ did, its always in a state court. Plus there were actually three other eyewitness's that were going to testify against him. Personally i wish he wouldn't have plead out though, I would have liked to see him get a nice long jail sentence. Anyone sick enough to kill and fight dogs needs to sit and rot for a while.

And while I'm at it, don't think a jury of black people would have automatically judged him innocent. That makes black people out to be idiots.

Answer 6

No offense but Michael Vick has some high powered, highly paid lawyers who are better at giving him advice than you or me. If they advised him to plead guilty then that's because they knew there wasn't a chance in hell he'd be acquitted by a jury. A jury may be persuaded by color when it's a black person on trial for the murder of two adult white people (or a white person on trial for the murder of two adult black people) but when it comes to harming children and animals juries are pretty much color blind. The fact that Vick, a millionaire many times over, had no financial reason whatsoever to be involved in illegal dogfighting would also hang him with a jury of middle class, regular folk of ANY color.

Answer 7

You missed a very important part of the equation. To work out a deal he'd have to rat out everyone involved. Do you think any Linemen wouldn't accidently break him in two for being a rat? How many guys on his team would let him suffer a career ending knee injury by accidently letting the entire defense crush him?

If he plea's innocent it goes to the courts. When found guilty he spend five years in prison instead of one. That's a lot of time for the prison puppy lovers to show him who the ***** (female dog) is.

So, you take the best choice. One year prison and hello CFL...maybe Arena.

Answer 8

This is NOT a traffic violation, it's a federal indictment. The feds have a 95% conviction rate. Vick had absolutely no choice but to plea these charges out. Do you think that you know more about what's going on that his own lawyers? I doubt it.

Answer 9

I think he's stupid, but not for pleading guilty. He had a great opportunity, was making millions of dollars, but now he's thrown that all away. How hard is it to not fight dogs? Come on, Ron Mexico, has the siphilis already gotten to your brain? Or did you even have one to begin with?

Answer 10

He is stupid for not taking a plea bargain earlier. If he had come clean from the very beginning, this whole thing would have been much less damaging to him. He would have had a shorter sentence, smaller fine, and when he gets suspended, it would be MUCH shorter because it would have not included lying to the commissioner. Race is irrelevant.

Answer 11

I would love to hear who your lawyers would be in this situation. You do realize that EVERYONE was telling Vick to plead. What do you think the reason was for that? I am guessing that it's a mountain of insurmountable evidence.