Michael Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, was sentenced to 23 months in prison Monday for his role in a dogfighting case. Vick has turned himself in three weeks ago to begin serving his sentence and appeared in court in a prison-issued black and white striped jumsuit.
Vick’s co-defendents were sentenced last week, with one receiving 18 months and the other 21 months. At the time, it was thought that Vick would receive a year to 18 months, at best. The judge sentenced Vick to more time because he felt that Vick had not been completely honest:
[U.S. District Judge Henry E.] Hudson refused to give Vick credit for accepting responsibility in the case; he ruled Vick wasn’t fully honest in his confessions to the government. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gill said: “He chose not to come forward and be completely forthright with us.”
[…]
Vick pleaded guilty in August to a felony charge of conspiring to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and to sponsor a dog in an animal fighting venture. The crime carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. Vick will pay a $5,000 fine and have three years of supervised release following prison.
Given the nature of the charges against Vick, I think he got a reasonable sentence.
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VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Re: Jason Smith…How did Michael Vicks letter, sentence, ANYTHING, get associated with Bush/Cheney or Neocons????? Gosh, do you hate so much that you’ll tie a baby’s burp to the current administration? Michael Vick may have felt the truth was being said in his letter but the mere fact that he has 3 kids by a girlfriend..oh, soon to be fiance..excuuuuuseeeee me..tells me that he’s already too far gone on his celebrity to be the man he says he is. You’re walking around with blinder’s on dude…so intent on bringing politics (oh, not liberal politics mind you..just conservative) into anything that you’d make such an inane association.
I went to VT at the exact same time as Michael Vick.
I read the letter he wrote to the judge and I am embarrassed that we both went to the same college. For a college educated person, bottom line is he knew better. Or if he didn’t, then he has a severely flawed mental capacity. A second grader knows that injuring any animal for sport or otherwise is a crime. Not only a crime, but most people feel sick inside when they think about it. Michael Vick (and any other person who hurts animals) should do jail time. I am appalled at the number of people (even a small percentage) on this topic who think that his punishment is too harsh or that he is being used as an example.
In our country we eat dogs. It seems ridiculous that a man goes to jail
for killing a dog. You people are morons.
as a matter of fact, if your dog walks in my neighborhood,
i’m eating him. Goes good with sweet & sour sauce.
“It certainly is not a pet…and if cities would modernize their zoning/leash laws to disallow these aggressive species, it would make it safer for families/children….but that might offend some moron….apologists for aggressive species apparently have never felt unsafe when a neighbor has about three or four and purposely intimidates others…” — Jason Smith
What a load of crap. Pit bulls were actually recommended as pets for children 100 years ago.
“Pit bulls are trained to be fighters, but they are sweet dogs if not trained that way.” -MFox63
Exactly. It is the training of these dogs that is the problem, not the breed. (It’s a BREED, Jason, not a SPECIES.)
“We kill cows for food, we kill rats and mice because they are a rodent and a nuisance.
We kill horses when they break their legs…” –MFox63
None of which are TORTURED if they do not perform as desired.
“[We] kill rabbits, squirrel and deer for game, most of the time just wounding one only to let it go off into the woods and suffer and die.” –MFox63
That is a bald-faced lie. Almost all game shot is recovered by the hunter.
“We kill rabbits, mice, and monkeys for research that probably suffer greatly.” –MFox63
Some, but many HUMAN lives are saved thereby.
“The rich big game hunter can stand in the safety of a jeep and drop an elephant, a tiger, or a bear for their hunting pleasure.” –MFox63
Your ignorance is appalling. If it were not for the rich elephant hunters, elephants would be wiped out in most of Africa by poachers. The African nations cannot afford to protect the animals without the revenue they get from the hunters. The meat is not wasted, but goes to the local people. And if you think a Jeep is any protection from an elephant….
All of these are mammals and could be just as much a pet as a dog.
I am leaning towards “mfox63” on this topic. As a native of the adjacent county where Vick’s incident took place, the activities he encouraged are not an uncommon practice. The big media, however, has chosen to make an example of him. This practice is routine and not at all unusual in Surry. Additionally, I believe because it is his private property with animals, no penalty should be directed towards him. Whether people have sick or crude humor, if it is being placed upon an object that is not human, then I believe the government has no right to step into the personal life of someone. As an advocate for Hampton Roads sports, this case is not all merited and only puts a bad face on the Tidewater region.
I agree with mfox63, if you think that you can tell the truth and it won’t hurt you, trust me it will. No one knows what was on the plate for michael vick, if you have two codefendents that are going to testify against you, and there is no one who is going to testify in your behalf, you really have to take the chance and accept the plea offer that is put in front of you, if you go to trial and you are really going to get screwed. I personally believe that michael vick was scared of all of the time that he would face if he went to trial, I also don’t believe that he had a little to do with the dog fighting, I believe he funded it but I just don’t see how he would have the time to conduct all of these fights, you really can’t be in two places at one time. I just believe that since he had all of the money and was a celebrity makes for a better case for the cops. I also believe that the sentence was way over the limit , I say that because approximately a month ago in the area I live in a man (who had prior felonies) was convicted of dog fighting, in addition dead dogs were found on his property, he was sentenced to two years probation and a $5,000.00 fine, that is a big jump from the sentence michael vick recieved. I also believe that there were a lot more big celebrities involved with this dog fighting, the dogs had to be fighting someones elses dog, there just seems to be a missing link in this story.
responding ti Anon E Mouse, I beg to differ with you a pit bull does not have to be trained in order for it to agressive, there are many cities in my area in which pit bulls are banned because of ther aggressiveness. In the past year there have been at least three mauling involving pit bulls, the last one was in August of 2007, in which a pit bull caused the death of a two month old baby, the owner of this dog is currently being prosecuted for not controlling his dog. In all of the cases these dogs where household pets and according to there owners they had not been trained to be aggrressive, recently a neighbor of mine had to have her pit bull put to sleep because the dog had developed a very aggressive behavior why I don’t know but I am sure my neighbor was not training her dog to be aggressive and she had this dog since he was a puppy. I wouldn’t have one for nothing even though I do love dogs I own one and I think pit bulls are very cute puppies, but I personnally would never own one.
thomas/sally – pick a name and stick with it.
to vjp if you are referring to the two comments that have been made from this website let me assure you that I am thomas and sally is my wife and if you don’t like the posts that we have made I am truly sorry, by investigating what websites are being used to post comments, you must keep in mind that some websites are used by several different people, in my household there are five people with access to this website. Thank you
Nope. I have no problems with the comments but when I see the same email address with two names, that is unusual. In the past, that has meant one person using multiple names. If that is not the case here, I apologize.