Ex-Penn State assistant coach Sandusky gets new sentencing

Associated Press

HARRISBURG, PA.

Seven years after Jerry Sandusky was convicted of child molestation and sentenced to decades behind bars, an appeals court has ordered a resentencing hearing for the former Penn State assistant football coach whose crimes have cost the university a fortune and triggered changes to state law.

Sandusky, 75, was sentenced in 2012 to 30 to 60 years, but a Pennsylvania Superior Court panel said that included the improper application of mandatory minimums.

In a 119-page opinion the appeals panel struck down argument after argument that lawyers for Sandusky had made in seeking a new trial.

His defense lawyer, Al Lindsay, said he was disappointed but will ask the state’s highest court to reconsider.

Lindsay said he was unsure if the new sentencing is likely to result in a substantially different sentence.

“I suppose it depends on the judge and what happens before the sentencing and after the sentencing,” Lindsay said. He called the case “one of the most profound injustices in the history of American jurisprudence.”

The state attorney general’s office said it was pleased that Sandusky’s convictions remained intact.

Sandusky had filed an ambitious appeal that argued a range of flaws occurred in the investigation, trial and sentencing, but the three-judge appeals ruled against all of them before granting him a new sentencing hearing.

Among his claims were that his lawyers should have kept him from giving a TV interview after his arrest, that his failure to testify was cited by a prosecutor and that prosecutors should have disclosed information about changes to victims’ stories before trial.

Victims testified at his trial that Sandusky subjected them to a range of abuse, from grooming to violent sexual attacks. Sandusky has consistently maintained his innocence.

Sandusky’s arrest led the university to push out Hall of Fame head coach Joe Paterno and then-university president Graham Spanier.

Penn State has paid more than $100 million to settle claims from about three dozen people who alleged Sandusky had abused them, and made a host of changes to its policies and procedures. The Sandusky scandal also resulted in a change to state laws that protect abused children.