Plaxico indicted, Pierce not indicted
Ex-Giants receiver Plaxico Burress was indicted today on gun charges, which carry a minimum of sentence of 3 1/2 years.
Burress, who shot himself in the leg at Latin Quarter nightclub last November, faces two counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of reckless endangerment, per the NY Daily News.
Giants captain Antonio Pierce, who was with Burress that night and helped conceal the weapon, was not indicted.
"Antonio is gratified that the grand jury determined that the evidence did not support an indictment," Michael Bachner, Pierce's attorney, wrote to Mike Garafolo of the Newark Star-Ledger in an e-mail. "Once the grand jurors were able to hear Antonio, see him and understand the workings of his mind on that extraordinary evening, they concluded, as they should have, that the acted as any reasonable person would have."
The possibility of an indictment for Pierce threatened to create a significant distraction for the Giants, who opened training camp in Albany today. At a minimum, the Giants would have been barraged with questions from the media on the topic.
Now they can keep 100 percent of their focus on football.
As for the 31-year-old Burress, however, he will certainly face jail time in what should be an open-and-shut case even if he doesn't serve the full minimum of 3 1/2 years. And NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will almost certainly suspend Burress indefinitely even if the trial doesn't begin until after the season.
As Ralph Vacchiano of the NY Daily News points out, this is very likely the end to the football career of Plaxico Burress.
