Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky will be appealing his convictions on dozens of counts of child sexual abuse, his defense team says. After a trial that featured graphic testimony from eight victims, jurors late Friday found Jerry Sandusky guilty on 45 of the 48 sexual abuse counts. The eight victims, now young men, testified that they were boys when Sandusky forced them to engage in sexual acts over the course of 15 years. After being found guilty, Sandusky, 68, was taken immediately to the jail in Centre County, Pa. He will be sentenced officially in about 90 days. He likely will be sentenced to serve the rest of his life behind bars. Sandusky’s defense team plans to file a motion for appeal , claiming he had ineffective counsel, based on lawyer Joe Amendola talking to the media. A linchpin of the appeal will also be prosecutor Joe McGettigan’s statements during his closing argument, when he told jurors that Jerry Sandusky could have proclaimed his innocence during an interview with Bob Costas on NBC. That violates Sandusky’s right to post-arrest trial silence, his camp argues. His attorneys will also ask the judge to sentence Sandusky to concurrent sentences, with the maximum of 20 years. For 45 convictions? Fat chance. His own adopted son, Matt Sandusky , has accused Jerry of the same thing. It’s possible an appellate court will throw out all objections on the basis of the testimony being too overwhelming to have warranted any other outcome. As of Saturday, Sandusky was placed on suicide watch in jail, according to reports. This does not mean that Sandusky is necessarily suicidal, but the judge wanted “to put the precautions in place first and then evaluate later.”
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Jerry Sandusky to Appeal Convictions, Placed on Suicide Watch
