Convicted and Jailed, Ex-Penn State Asst. Coach Jerry Sandusky Is Expected to Appeal
Despite being found guilty by a Pennsylvania jury Friday night on 45 of the 48 counts he was facing in a child sex-abuse case, Jerry Sandusky isn’t admitting any wrongdoing.
The retired former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach plans to appeal, his defense counsel says. Attorney Joe Amendola also explained that the 68-year-old Sandusky didn’t testify in his own defense because his adopted son, Matt, who recently went public with a claim that Sandusky sexually abused him but wasn’t one of the 10 alleged victims at issue in the trial, was prepared to testify as a rebuttal witness, CNN Justice reports.
Taken into custody immediately after the guilty verdict, when the judge revoked his bond, Sandusky is expected to be sentenced within three months. It appears likely that he will spend the rest of his life in prison unless he prevails on appeal.
Amendola’s closing argument on Sandusky’s behalf was described by a Widener University law professor as the best he’d ever seen, based on what the lawyer had to work with, the Citizens Voice reports.
Despite similar testimony from multiple victims and eyewitness testimony from a young assistant coach who said he’d seen Sandusky raping a youth in a Penn State shower room, the defense attorney cast doubt on the case against his client by questioning why it took so long for authorities to build a case against Sandusky.
It made no sense that Sandusky had worked with an immense number of youngsters, as a younger man, but was not accused until he was in his fifties, Amendola said. Then, after a nearly two-year investigation, authorities had only located two alleged victims, one of whom kept changing his story.
“It doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t add up,” Amendola said again and again during his closing.
On appeal, Sandusky is expected to bring up objections made prior to trial by defense counsel that they weren’t prepared and question evidentiary rulings made by the judge, according to CNN Justice.
“If you win on one of the appeal issues, everything probably falls,” said Amendola after the guilty verdict in the Bellefonte, Pa., case. “All we have to do is convince an appellate court that one of the issues that we will raise is worthy of a reversal.”
An excerpt from a NBC News television interview with Sandusky that was shown to the jury may also be raised on appeal, because a repetition of a question and answer made it look like Sandusky was resisting a response, Reuters reports.
However, Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly said the commonwealth expects to win any appeal mounted over such issues, another Reuters article reports.
Additional and related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Judge Nixes 3 Charges Against Sandusky; 48 Counts Remain in Child Sex-Abuse Case as Jury Deliberates”
Associated Press: “Pa. gov: 2-year Sandusky investigation necessary “
Citizens Voice: “Analysis: The story behind the Sandusky verdict”
