Everybody deserves a fair trial. Even Jerry Sandusky.
It’s the basic premise of our nation’s judicial system, and nobody should be prevented from having due justice in the court of law. Jerry Sandusky had his day in court, but he wants a new trial.
Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant coach who was sentenced to 30-60 years in jail for sexual abuse to children four years ago, is seeking a new trial in Pennsylvania based on the belief his trial was unfair due to incompetence of his previous defense attorneys. On Monday, Sandusky appeared in a Centre County court to plead his case for a new trial, continuing to argue he is an innocent man. Sandusky’s legal battle now wants defense attorneys to be able to question the witnesses to Sandusky’s actions, including possible victims. The judge’s biggest concern is whether or not Sandusky’s defense team has witnesses able to verify details they hope to bring back to court that were left out of Sandusky’s original trial.
“My problem is that I don’t know that you’ve got the witnesses to back [the claims] up,” Judge John Cleland told Sandusky’s lawyer, Al Lindsay.
One claim made by the Sandusky legal team was the prosecutor in the original trial knew the person known simply as Victim 2, when they originally said they did not know the victim. Lindsay now wants to be able to question Victim 2. Another key part of the defense team’s case is targeting how details of the investigation leaked in 2011 and why Sandusky’s defense team waived a preliminary hearing and kept their client off the stand during the trial. Sandusky claimed all along he wanted to testify and tell his side of the story.
The Sandusky scandal ripped apart the Penn State community, both on campus and off. After Sandusky was sentenced, an independent report arranged by Penn State’s Board of Trustees sought to detail how Sandusky’s actions and allegations were handled by Penn State staff members, including former head coach Joe Paterno, athletics director Tim Curley and president Graham Spanier. Spanier and Curley still await trial for their part in the whole mess. Paterno was fired days after the Sandusky information became public, a week after celebrating his 409th career victory to become the all-time winningest coach in Division 1 football. Penn State was later slammed by the NCAA in response to the Freeh Report with a four-year postseason ban, a significant reduction in scholarships for the football program and a $60 million fine that would go towards child abuse awareness initiatives in the state of Pennsylvania. That postseason ban was reduced to two years for what can only be described as good behavior, and the NCAA lifted all remaining sanction terms to restore vacated wins and scholarships. Had the NCAA not stepped back on their sanctions, this upcoming college football season would have been the first season Penn State would be coming off the sanctions.
Sandusky may not be likely to get a new trial four years after the original trial, which means he will continue to rot in a jail cell for the rest of his life.
