Michael Vick will soon be out of prison.  His anticipated release date is June 2009.  He  will seek to re-enter the NFL.  There will be vocal opposition from animal rights groups.  Don’t count me among the opposition.  When the time comes I believe the NFL should re-instate his eligibility to play and seek NFL employment under probationary conditions.  Anyone who knows me is probably shocked as hell to read this.  I own a dog and a cat.  I love them dearly.  I have been active in various animal rights causes and benefits.  I screamed loudest for Vick’s head on a doggie platter and a long prison sentence. I was disappointed when his state sentence ran concurrent with his federal sentence although as an attorney I was expecting just that.

I  do not like Michael Vick. I think he is a gangster thug.  I admit that I have never met him.  It does not matter.  In my mind it is res ipsa loquitur.  If you abuse animals or take pleasure from watching them abused that is all I need to know. You are a bad person and a gangster thug.  End of story.  I also think Michael Vick will end up in serious trouble with the law again at some point in his life.  Why?  I believe that anyone who abuses animals or takes pleasure in watching them being abused on a certain level has a sociopath personality and lacks the mental mechanism to understand societal values.  That will more often than not lead to trouble.  You can’t grow a conscience regardless of any explanation for not having one.  With all that being said how could I possibly support Michael Vick?

I support Micheal Vick being allowed to seek employment in the NFL because I respect our justice system and the equality of judgment it is supposed to represent even if it often does not always work out that way.  Michel Vick was judged.  He is paying his debt born out of that judgment.  Once that happens, our Constitution and justice system mandates that while we can hold opinions and express them and judge him as a person, we can no longer legally judge his act.   Having a felony conviction legally  excludes a person from certain professions.  Professional sports is not among them.  That does not mean we have to like Michael Vick.  That does not mean an NFL team has to hire him.  I am comfortable enough in my convictions in this area to know that I would never hire someone who did what he did to work for me in any capacity.  You have the right to ask me for a job.  I have the right to say no.  I have the right to bring my moral compass into play in saying no.  You have the right to find someone else to hire you in the same type of job who may view things differently than I do.   Michael Vick is paying his dues to society.  He should not have to pay them again in being denied the right to seek employment.  I know there will be an NFL owner or two who does not view Michael Vick the  same way I do.  There will be exhaustive pre-employment psyhological evaluations and othe precautions taken.  They will undoubtedly give him a chance to merit employment with their team.  I won’t like it.  I however am not societie’s legal or  moral gatekeeper. Neither is anyone reading this.  The NFL and individual team owners will decide which way their own compass points.  I will say that whoever hires Michael Vick had better hope that somewhere deep inside himself  he has found the guilt ridden emotions that help shape our conscience.  If he does not, it is a given that  he will be judged again.

We are all used to seeing high profile professional athletes work their way down from making touchdowns to making license plates. Michael Vick being the obvious example. It a much rarer occurrence to see it work the other way Especially when the person was a convicted child molester. Appearances however can be deceiving……

Shift scene to small town Georgia. Horny high school teenagers trying to get in each other pants oblivious to any legal ramifications that may exist due to a an age difference of a year or two. It really doesn’t have to be Georgia does it? Half the kids I knew in high school were in the same pants and that was small town Pittsburgh. Bottom line, its going on small town and large city everywhere USA……

Here is the kicker….. In small town Georgia three plus years ago, a minor age differential between a few older teenage boys and slightly younger girls propelled several teenagers into “pedophile hell” finally ending up as convicted felons with sex offender tags following them for life.

So was the story of both Marcus Dixon and Genarlow Wilson.

Marcus Dixon was convicted in May 2003 for the statatory rape and aggravated child molestation of Kristie Brown. Marcus was 17 years old and Kristie was just under 16 at the time they had sex. At the time the Georgia Aggravated Child Molestation statute, a crime designed to punish true pedophiles had no exception for consenting teens so close in age as many other states such as Texas had. It also carried a mandatory 10 year prison term and mandatory registration as a sex offender upon release for prison. What amounts to a life ending set of circumstances.

There was no doubt that there was sex and there was no doubt of the age difference. Open and shut case. Amid public outrage the jury had absolutely no choice but to sentence both Marcus Dixon and Genarlow Wilson to ten years in prison. (the jury did not know of the mandatory sentence when guilt was assessed which is normal in criminal cases)

Public Outrage continued during both Dixons’s and Wilson’s imprisonment. Appeals ensued. The Georgia Supreme Court finally reversed the Dixon conviction ruling 18-year-old Marcus Dixon should have been prosecuted just on the lesser charge of misdemeanor statutory rape rather than aggravated child molestation for having sex with a 15-year-old in February 2003. The ruling let the statutory rape conviction, which carries a maximum sentence of one year and a $1,000 fine, stand. Dixon had long served that portion of his sentence and was released.

Dixon later enrolled in Hampton College on a football scholarship. He had an outstanding collegiate career and while not drafted was signed just the other day to a 3 year multi million dollar free agent contract with the Dallas Cowboys.

Marcus Dixon is not the only Georgia teen to be caught up in the Georgia “Pedophile Express”

Genarlow Wilson was also a young Georgia teen and promising athlete who made the mistake of letting his teen hormones jettison him to a promising prison football career with a sex offender tag to boot.

Genarlow videotaped himself having sex with a drunk teen girl slightly younger than himself. The tape proved to be judge jury and executioner. That was all the state needed to once again prosecute and prove aggravated chid molestation. Bing! Bang! Bam! Guilty and Ten Years in the Booty Hilton for the 17 year old with only the wonderful world that waits for Registered Sex Offenders to greet him upon return….

After over three years behind bars, Genarlo’s conviction was also overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court on the grounds that the punishment for teen sex was cruel and unusual as compared to the crime.

It should also be noted that in the interim the Georgia Legislature had reformed the law to bring it into the mainstream and make the conduct both Genarlo and Marcus engaged in a misdemeanors punishable by one year in jail with no sex offender tag.

Genarlo has since gone onto college and we shall see what his future holds for him…..

Let there be no mistake here. Neither of these kids were choirboys. Both were accused of the much more serious charge of felony rape but acquitted on those charges. There were many facts brought out in both cases that could lead reasonable people to disagree on whether these teens were in fact bad kids….. it was not cut and dry.

There were also serious racial overtones to both these cases. Not race cards…. In my opinion legitimate concerns about racial targeting in small town Georgia.

Mr Tibbs would not have approved……

You can read my coverage of the original Genarlo Wilson case here.

 By TRAVIS REED Associated Press Writer

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) _ Pro golfer Tripp Isenhour apologized for killing a hawk that was making noise while he tried to film a TV show. Now the Humane Society wants the PGA Tour to take action.

“Because of the high profile nature of this case, the PGA needs to take steps to address its interest and to make it clear that they don’t condone animal cruelty,” said Dale Bartlett, the deputy manager for animal cruelty issues for the Humane Society of the United States.

Bartlett said the organization would contact the PGA Tour on Friday to discuss the issue.

Isenhour, who plays on the developmental Nationwide Tour, was charged Wednesday with cruelty to animals and killing a migratory bird, misdemeanors that carry a maximum penalty of 14 months in jail and $1,500 in fines.

Isenhour quickly apologized Thursday.

“As soon as this happened, I was mortified and extremely upset and continue to be upset,” Isenhour said in a statement issued through his management company, SFX Golf. “I want to let everyone know there was neither any malice nor deliberate intent whatsoever to hit or harm the hawk. I was trying to simply scare it into flying away.”

The 39-year-old player, whose real name is John Henry Isenhour III, became angry while filming “Shoot Like A Pro” on Dec. 12 at the Grand Cypress Golf Club when a squawking red-shouldered hawk roughly 300 yards away forced another take.

He drove closer to the bird in his golf cart and starting hitting balls at it. The bird didn’t move and Isenhour gave up and drove away.

Isenhour started again when the hawk moved within about 75 yards, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Brian Baine indicated in a report.

Isenhour allegedly said, “I’ll get him now,” and aimed for the hawk.

“About the sixth ball came very near the bird’s head, and (Isenhour) was very excited that it was so close,” Baine wrote.

A few shots later, witnesses said he hit the hawk. The bird, protected as a migratory species, fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils.

Bartlett said Isenhour’s case, like the Michael Vick dog fighting case, is disappointing for society.

“We look up to professional athletes and we want them to reflect the best of us as a society and I think we’re appalled when it turns out they instead reflect some of the very worst attributes,” he said in a phone interview Thursday night.

Isenhour said he is an animal lover and his family has adopted three cats from a local shelter.

“We ask that everyone accept my sincerest apology, and please be respectful of my family’s privacy,” he said.

Isenhour has won four times on the Nationwide Tour, including twice in 2006. The former Georgia Tech star has played three events this year on the tour the last a 36th-place tie two weeks ago in the Moonah Classic in Australia.

Jethro Senger, a sound engineer at the shoot, said hitting the bird was “basically like a joke to Isenhour).”

“He just kept saying how he didn’t think he could have hit it, which I think is a stupid thing for a PGA Tour golfer to say,” Senger said. “He can put a ball in a hole from hundreds of yards away, and here he is hitting line drives at something that’s, I don’t know, a couple hundred feet away?”

Senger said no one in the roughly 15-person crew intervened, and many later regretted it.

“It was one of those cases where there’s some trepidation on whether or not they should speak up and do something,” Senger said.

Senger said the killing was not captured on video. The bird was buried at the golf course and later dug up by Florida investigators.

“Americans have no tolerance for cruelty to animals. Such a petty, mean-spirited act against a wild bird is inexcusable and prosecutors are right to hold Isenhour accountable to the law,” Humane Society executive vice president Michael Markarian said in a statement released Thursday.

MY TAKE ON THIS:  We cannot castigate and imprison Michael Vick and then turn a blind eye to this guy’s action.  Intent is Intent.  Isenhour should be suspended from the PGA tour. The matter should be referred to both the state and federal grand jury for the killing of the bird as cruelty case and killing of a protected species under the Migratory Bird Act.  The guy’s claim of remorse is also a complete joke.  His initial reaction to what he did was to say it was “one in a million”   

MY RESPONSE TO ISENHOUR:  Apology accepted, now comes accountability….   Step up like a man and accept what comes with that ……..

(ESPN) Inspired by the incredible ratings of the  NHL outdoor Winter Classic Hockey games, The National Football League announced today that in light of the number of NFL players currently facing jail time, doing time and having done prison time, there will be an off-season exhibition game played against the to be formed NFL CONVICT ALL STAR TEAM. The team will be complete organized and funded by the NFL as well as funds obtained from the Federal Economic Bailout.   team was formed from NFL players currently serving prison time or having already served time and released. Tryouts were recently held at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. While the list of the names of the former players who tried out was kept under tight security, ESPN investigators were able to get a list of those trying out.We have learned that the game will be telecast on pay per view at the price of 49.95 on the NFL Network. An NFL spokesperson speaking on the condition of anonymity stated that they see no reason why this should not become an annual event for many years to come.

When questioned as to why they thought there would be a steady stream of players, the spokesperson stated that given the number of NFL players arrested yearly they should have no problem fielding a team for years to come. It was also pointed out that there were an increasing number of college football arrests that could be beneficial to the new team. It was specifically noted that about half the Penn State Nittany Lion football team was facing jail time for one offense or another… They were keeping a close eye on that situation for recruiting purposes. Here are the confirmed starters so far:

• 1. Michael Vick at quarterback. Vick is serving 23 months at Levenworth Federal Prison as a result of his plea of guilty to numerous charges related to dog fighting. It was felt that Mike’s “vicious, merciless style” is well suited for the team. They had Michael Vick at quarterback for the foreseeable future and that would be enough to field a competitive team. He stated that Vick as the cornerstone for the new team fit the “running” persona of the team perfectly.

• 2. Starting at wide receiver will be former Carolina Panthers wide received Rae Carruth currently doing 18 years for conspiring to kill his girlfriend. You will recall that Ray went on the run and was found hiding in the trunk of a car. A perfect target for the “running’ style of Vick who often can’t hit the broad side of a barn let alone a car trunk…..

• 3. A surprise starter is former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Byron “Bam Morris. A former Doak Walker award winner, Morris served 30 months at Leavenworth Federal Prison for drug trafficking. Morris is currently playing for the Katy Copperheads of the National Indoor Football League. It is rumored however that he feels his career will be better served on the All Con Team. He is currently negotiating with authorities to violate his parole…They expect him in the starting lineup in the near future….

• 4. Also starting at running back will be former Ohio State Standout Maurice Clarett. Clarett is currently serving 7 years for robbery at the Toledo Correctional Institution. It is rumored that Clarett has already negotiated a transfer to an Israeli prison after the season is over. He will complete his sentence their and enter the Israeli Army…..

• 5. On defense, former Dallas Cowboys cornerback Dwayne Goodrich is vying for a starting position. Goodrich is currently serving 7 years for criminally negligent homicide. Goodrich, while on his way home from a strip club, struck and killed two people who were trying to help a stranded motorist pulled off to the side of the highway. It is hoped that his slashing, reckless collision oriented style will help in running down open field running backs . When asked about the new team, Goodrich stated that he hoped the team would be able to land former Buffalo Bills running back and NFL Hall of Famer O.J Simpson….. Simpson is currently awaiting trial in Las Vegas on robbery and kidnapping charges. He went on to state that he did not think anyone could run O.J. down the way he could…..

The balance of the team will be named as more players enter the prison system. We have also learned that Burt Reynolds has been contacted to coach the team. When asked why Burt would be a good coach, Roger Goodell responded that he did an excellent job for that all con team many years ago…. When it was pointed out that Burt did play football at Florida State, he in fact was referring to the movie “The Longest Yard… Goodall acted surprised and stated he could have sworn Reynolds had done time for stealing a car…..