I think you should pardon Michael Vick, the former NFL quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. As an attorney, I do not believe that his acts of dog brutality warrant further prison time. It is not worth our taxpayer money to keep him behind bars. He could be making millions of taxable dollars playing sports and the federal court could have laid a monetary fine on him in the amount of $500,000. He is working for 12 cents an hour. The taxes on his potential NFL wages would far exceed 12 cents an hour. He has spent enough time in prison to understand that what he did is wrong. The federal court should release him now and could require him to establish a foundation against animal brutality.
This is a young fellow who was thrown millions of dollars at a very immature age and prison should not be the place for him anymore, possibly never. He should be signing autographs for kids, visiting hospitals for deprived children like the make-a-wish foundation does with athletes, playing on the football field on Sundays and helping raise animal awareness. Now that the United States has finally elected a non-completely white President (I am Caucasian), I don't think any politician including Barack Obama has to worry about racism when running for office and pardoning Michael Vick. A pardon might raise questions, but there are lots of people out there who think he deserves more than just a second chance. We live in a great country that is much smarter than locking up a multimillion dollar sports figure with taxpayers money in these times. Barack Obama should let him get to work and earn taxable money rather than waste ours.
To see the state of Virginia bring more charges against him says to me there is something wrong with their government. We have banks collapsing, companies that were once strong failing and people losing jobs, yet the state wants to continue to waste money on Michael Vick, who has served a long time for dog brutality. While its not exactly double jeopardy, it seems pretty close. Michael Vick being in prison is definitely not gonna support any prison town more than what he can support off the field (which are also major problems inside the United States and a discussion for some other day).
He is one of the greatest athletes of our generation and can be a great leader off the field for people of all ages to look up to. We don't live in a bubble world and Michael Vick made some mistakes. Please show us that we are a much smarter nation than this. Let's spend our taxpayer dollars wisely, not on an immature young man, who can be a great leader of our time.
