Michael Vick, left, enters federal court with his lawyer, Billy Martin, in Richmond, Va., in this Aug. 27 file photo. Vick has asked a federal judge for leniency after being sentenced to 23 months in prison for dogfighting-related charges.

Richmond, Va. ? Michael Vick declared “I am not the bad person or beast I’ve been made out to be” and asked for leniency in a letter to the federal judge who sentenced him to 23 months in prison for a dogfighting conspiracy.

Vick made his handwritten plea from jail as he awaited Monday’s sentencing by Judge Henry E. Hudson. His five-page letter and several others from Vick supporters, including baseball great Hank Aaron and former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman, were released by the U.S. District Court in Richmond on Thursday.

“I take full responsibility for my actions and am ashamed that my actions hurt animals and allowed animals to be hurt and killed,” Vick wrote. “… Your Honor, I just ask for a second chance.”

The suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback’s appeal wasn’t enough to overcome Hudson’s finding that Vick lied at various times about his hands-on role in helping kill pit bulls and about his marijuana use, which was detected by a drug screening. Hudson cited those lapses in giving Vick a longer sentence than two fellow defendants, who previously were sentenced to 18 months and 21 months.

“Throughout this entire case, I’ve just tried to be honest,” Vick wrote. “Sometimes I didn’t know how to be and was scared, but eventually I put everything out on the table and left no stones unturned.”

Vick said he’s an animal lover but that he grew up in a culture where dogfighting went unpunished while people were arrested for guns or drugs.

His mother, Brenda Boddie, also alluded to Vick’s upbringing in a rough area of Newport News in her letter to the judge.

Vick said he now knows his actions were wrong.

He also said his actions have left his own once-enviable life in tatters.

“Honestly, I wish I had never been involved in dogfighting,” he wrote. “As a result I’ve lost everything – my good name, job, endorsements, and now my freedom.”