Let me start by saying I have no beef with Donte Stallworth or his legal team. His attorneys did what they were paid to do. They got him the best deal possible which will keep his NFL career intact. My problem is with our justice system and how it seems their priorities are mixed up.
I have an assignment for you. Go to any one of your friends who don't know anything about the NFL and never heard of Michael Vick or Donte Stallworth (it might be an old person, but do you best). Present them with the following scenarios.
Scenario #1
A person is found running a dog fighting ring with some buddies. He wasn't the main person running the dog fighting ring, but he was the one financing it.
Scenario #2
A person is driving at 7am when another person is trying to cross the street while flagging down a bus. The person driving is "legally" drunk when hits the pedestrian and kills him. He does stay at the scene and call 911.
Both individuals take a plea bargain from the prosecution. One person pleads guilty to financing a dog fighting ring. The other person pleads guilty to DUI Manslaughter.
One person gets thirty days in jail and the other gets nineteen months. Which person got which?
There is not a rational person in the world who would think that running a dog fighting ring is equivalent to killing a person while driving drunk.
I am a man of logic and it is illogical that Donte Stallworth will be playing at the latest by Week 4 of the season and Michael Vick is still struggling to get reinstated and finding a team to sign him.
It just doesn't make sense to me. I would like to reiterate that I never said that Michael Vick shouldn't be punished, but the punishment should fit the crime.
Here is another example that while Vick was insanely stupid in his decision making that he doesn't deserve all the punishment he has received.
And if there is anyone out there that can justify Donte Stallworth getting eighteen months less than Michael Vick on a far more serious charge I would love to hear your thoughts.
Rob you have to understand people value there dogs more than humans.
I agree this is rather warped but I think it just goes to show how desensitized we are when humans are killed because of a DUI than we are of a dog being abused.
The only difference I can see is intent Donte Stallworth never intended to kill anyone(although driving under the influence always presents that risk). Vick intended to abuse those dogs
I made a bet with one of my friends that Stallworth would get less time than Vick because as I told my friend "People these days love their dogs more than their kids." Needless to say I sadly got $200 in my hand today. I don't even want it I might donate it to charity or give it to the first homeless person I see. To me it just shows how disgraceful the penile system can be.
I hear people say "Well, he didn't do it intentionally" and I ask "How many drunk drivers who unintentionally hurt or killed someone because they got behind the wheel are in jail for a lot longer than a month?" To me he's on the same level as Leonard Little now.
I see what you are saying. More about Vick than Stallworth. He just played the legal system
Point well taken Little and i couldn't agree with you more. I think the thing that is being missed here is the backing of PETA in helping to convict Mike Vick. As warped as this may sound I think this criminal decision that was given to Donte Stallworth may help Vick in his reinstatement into the league as the commish will not want to seem like a hypocrite and bring further scrutiny on how the league shells out it's punishment. Who's the guy that is playing for the Ram's that had a vehicular manslaughter conviction?
that's what i thought when i first heard it. but you have to go a little deeper than the jail time in stallworth's case. he has to do his community service and alcohol/drug testing. that's to be expected. i'm pretty sure he's going to be on probation for the next 10 years and house arrest for the next 2 years. oh, and he's having his license permanently suspended. so he won't be going back to his normal life for a while, if at all.
some other things stallworth had going for him; it wasn't a federal charge and COOPERATION WITH THE POLICE during the investigation. and probably the biggest thing is that the victim's family didn't want to put him under the jail (probably once the civil suit was settled). this didn't go down without their approval.
You are exactly right, the legal team did what they were paid to do. Donte' will serve one month in prison just like Leanord Little. Same thing happened to another guy that attended UT, Dwayne Goodrich who was sentenced to 7 yrs in prison. The judge tacked on 5 more yrs. for him fleeing the scene, killing 2. Donte' did the wrong and right thing that night. Wrong by driving drunk and striking the guy; right by stopping and calling the police to confess. That's what really saved him; along with a top notch legal team. He settled out of court with the family; only because the 15 year old daughter said that she wants a resolution quick to have closure. My prayers go out to the Reyes fam, losing a loved one is very hard to cope with. The legal system is terrible when it comes to situations like this... Whether it's drugs or dog's your gonna get the max while murderer's and sex offender's walk...
That guard looks like she wants to slap fire out of his ass!
Donte Stallworth did everything he could possibly do to make amends, so I'm sure the judge took all of that into account. But I'm not buying that unintentionl crap either.
Littal, oh I hear. There's a history of manslaughter via drunk driving cases involving NYPD members that get less than 19 months. I recall a study involving rape cases where offenders recieved little to no time, only to get harsher sentences when they raped certain women.
But 19 years for dogfighting? How much time would it have been if it was cockfighting?
The real issue is not human life / dog life. This is apples and oranges IMO. What I'm about to type is not something I condone.. but what I think is real.
Vick lied about running and financing a dog fighting ring. He was making $$$ off of this. Dog fighting is not new, not in the least. But the $$$ that was made from these fights is what caused the bigger crime. In addition to that, PETA has a huge influence nowadays. The Gov't not getting their slice of the pie + PETA= jail time.
Stallworth got the same amt of time that Leonard Little did in 2001. 30 days. Same crime, same sitcho. But I feel like there are things we don't know about in this. Did this pedestrian run out in front of him? Did he have on dark clothes?? Was HE really at fault and Stallworth got the harsh rep because of being legally drunk???
Vick was sloppy with how he handled it. Stallworth was not. In addition to that, Vehicular Manslaughter tends to get minimal time in most states. Matters of the money (i.e., drugs, gambling, Vick's case) do not.
It's sad to say that $$$ is more important than human life, but one is not the same as the other.. at least in the eyes of the judicial system.
If Donte Stallworth was drunk and ran over a dog crossing the street he would've got 25 to life.
Stallworth will be catching touchdowns by Novemwber. Who will catch more TD's this year, Stallworth of Plax??
Vick's crime was planned and executed time and time again over the course of years. He, no doubt, knew it to be illegal. He made a conscious decision to break the law and then made several conscious decisions to try to hide his guilt.
Stallworth made the decision to drive drunk. He deserves punishment for that. He also ran over a man who was crossing a street on foot illegally (not in a cross-walk). No doubt, Stallworth didn't 'choose' to do that. His actions afterward suggest such. He tried to help the man and his family afterward and cooperated from the start with the authorities...to me...if I am the judge handing out the sentencing, that counts for something.
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I am somewhat disappointed, not only by the article, but also by the comments made by the readers. The article says that basically all Vick did was finance the fighting ring, when in fact he participated in all aspects of the fights to include the brutal and disgusting methods by which he euthanized the dogs to include; hanging, drowning, smaching and shooting. I am not making a judgment as to weather or not the brutal and intentional murder of dogs compares to unintended death of a person but you should really take the totality of Vick's actions into consideration when comparing the two cases.