A LOT OF opinion supporting the Eagles decision to sign Michael Vick (including a recent Sunday editorial by your sister paper) is wrongheaded, weak-spirited and contrary to the very basis of the U.S. justice system.
In fact, the decision to hire Vick is at odds with his criminal conduct and with the real nature and purpose of "second chances" in our criminal justice system.
Second chances are something I have always supported both as chief public defender and as a judge.
However, the extent of a second chance depends in large part on the nature of the original criminal conduct. For example, if a repeat-offender drunken driver finally went to jail after killing someone in an alcohol-fueled crash, who would argue that he "deserved" to be allowed to drive again after he completed his prison sentence?
Let's look at what Vick did, because the nature and extent of his crime should tell us a lot about what its long-term consequences should be.
His was not a spur-of-the-moment, onetime offense motivated by out-of-control anger or fueled by drugs or alcohol.
Instead, he made a conscious decision to finance and help operate an illegal business that had, as part of its daily operation, the torture, maiming and execution of animals.
He participated in every aspect of the business, including the killings. He did this out of cruelty, and he did it for money, although he certainly had plenty of that. What's worse, he did it not just once or twice, but rather he continued to engage in the same conduct over a period of several years.
In short, this is not simply about whether Vick spent some time in jail. And it's not about whether his victims walked on two legs or four. It's about whether there should be different long-term consequences for the cold-blooded, serial offender whose crimes are driven by greed than for the "average" criminal whose crimes are often linked to substance abuse, mental health issues or poverty.
I'm very much in favor of offender-rehabilitation programs for all these people, but that doesn't mean that all of them are entitled to walk out of prison with no further consequences.
In fact, for most offenders, an appropriate sentence includes specific postprison obligations and restrictions.
It's not hard for Vick to talk about remorse and regret when the rewards for his words are so great. It is hard for us to know how much of this he really means.
