Marty
02-23-2008, 06:03 PM
Atlanta Journal Constitution - GA -- because he already has pleaded guilty in federal court to what they consider the same offense, one of the lawyers said Saturday.
Billy Martin said the state case, scheduled to go to trial in March, amounts to "double jeopardy" for his client.
Martin, speaking at an Atlanta symposium on the law and the media, said he could not go into detail about the yet-to-be-filed motion. For a double jeopardy claim to succeed, Martin and his colleagues will have to convince a judge the state dogfighting charge on which Vick was indicted in September is for "the same act" as the federal dogfighting conspiracy charge for which he is serving a 23-month sentence.
The Virginia indictment charges Vick with one count of torturing and killing dogs and one count of promoting dogfighting. Each carries a maximum five-year prison term.
Martin also called into question the strategy Vick's legal team pursued before he began representing Vick last July. Had he been brought into the case earlier, Martin said, there would have been a different result. Martin suggested Vick's lawyers should have arranged for his case to be handled at the state level rather than in federal court.
http://www.ajc.com/falcons/content/sports/falcons/stories/2008/02/23/vick_0224.html
Billy Martin said the state case, scheduled to go to trial in March, amounts to "double jeopardy" for his client.
Martin, speaking at an Atlanta symposium on the law and the media, said he could not go into detail about the yet-to-be-filed motion. For a double jeopardy claim to succeed, Martin and his colleagues will have to convince a judge the state dogfighting charge on which Vick was indicted in September is for "the same act" as the federal dogfighting conspiracy charge for which he is serving a 23-month sentence.
The Virginia indictment charges Vick with one count of torturing and killing dogs and one count of promoting dogfighting. Each carries a maximum five-year prison term.
Martin also called into question the strategy Vick's legal team pursued before he began representing Vick last July. Had he been brought into the case earlier, Martin said, there would have been a different result. Martin suggested Vick's lawyers should have arranged for his case to be handled at the state level rather than in federal court.
http://www.ajc.com/falcons/content/sports/falcons/stories/2008/02/23/vick_0224.html