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Gene J. Puskar / AP
Jerry Sandusky leaves court Wednesday in Bellefonte, Pa.
ANALYSIS
The defense ended with a whimper Wednesday in Jerry Sandusky's trial in Bellefonte, Pa.
At one point, it appeared as though the defense might get some traction. It called investigators to the stand who testified that they never informed victims about complaints from other victims. Recordings of the investigators' own interviews revealed that the victims had been coached.
Wes Oliver is a professor at Widener University who teaches criminal law and procedure. This fall he will join the faculty of the Duquesne University School of Law as a professor and director of the school's criminal justice program.It would likely not seem unreasonable to most jurors for police to let victims know that there are others. Jurors may even have little problem with letting victims know some specifics of other complaints.
Jurors, however, should wonder why investigators tried to hide their methods of making alleged victims comfortable speaking. They should ask themselves what else the investigators told those men and didn't report. The defense scored some real points when the state's investigators denied techniques that they were revealed to have used in documents that were turned over to the defense before trial.
Other than that, the defense case was marked by missteps and largely tangential testimony.
There was a parade of witnesses who knew Sandusky as a neighbor, a colleague or a mentor. The rules of evidence place strict limits on the testimony of character witnesses. Formally, they are limited to addressing the defendant's reputation for honesty, peacefulness and law-abiding character. In introducing character witnesses, lawyers are able to describe how the witnesses know the defendant.
That process of introduction gave Sandusky's lawyers an opportunity to tell the jury that his colleagues never knew of any misconduct with children. It also gave those he mentored an opportunity to tell the jury that he hadn't molested them as children.
Character witnesses don't hurt the defense, but they can add only so much. The fact that there are people who never saw Sandusky do anything inappropriate isn't inconsistent with his guilt.
Defense abruptly rests without calling Jerry Sandusky
Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial
And there were missteps during the defense case that really hurt.
Dr. Jonathan Dranov — who met with one of the prosecution's star witnesses, former assistant football coach Michael McQueary, after an alleged incident in a Penn State University locker room shower — had been expected to undermine McQueary's account. But the opposite happened. Dranov bolstered McQueary's testimony, describing him as having been very upset in describing the incident.
More damning, however, was that Dranov testified that McQueary reported hearing "sexual sounds" in the shower that night. At a preliminary hearing in December in a separate but related perjury case against two for top university officials, a lawyer cross-examining McQueary got him to admit that he heard two, at most three, "slapping" sounds. The defense's cross-examination of McQueary last week didn't confine his testimony to two or three slaps, and its examination of Dranov left the jury with testimony that "sexual sounds" were heard that night.
Finally, in calling an expert who testified that Sandusky had a personality disorder that could explain away some of his behavior, the defense had to let a prosecution expert examine Sandusky.
The defense expert's testimony was worthless at best and harmful at worst — he testified that he himself may suffer from the disorder, a disorder that he was unable to differentiate from the personalities many people have seen in their friends and colleagues.
By contrast, the prosecution's expert — a very sharp, impeccably credentialed, well-spoken psychiatrist — discounted the defense expert's theory and concluded that Sandusky's personality profile was consistent with a psychosexual disorder, with a focus on adolescents.
In exchange for raising the possibility of "histrionic personality disorder," the defense got a prosecution expert who said the defendant fits the profile of a pedophile, in other words. This was not a good trade.
The defense had quite the task facing it when it started presenting its case. It doesn't seem to have raised a reasonable doubt. On the whole, it seems to have aided the prosecution.
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You told me you were a friend. You gave me gifts and took me to Penn State football games.
We were in your house. You told me to take a shower. I did only because you were my friend.
I did what you told me, even thought I did not want to. I took my clothes off in the bathroom and
started the water. You walked in naked. I was scared, but you said everything would be okay. You told me to wash your penis. I didn't want to, but you said everything would be okay. I did what you told me. As I washed your penis, you told me to wash harder and harder. I didn't want to, but you said everything would be okay. Then you told me to use my mouth. It was then that you started to touch my penis. I choked as I sucked on your penis. But you took my head and forced your penis down my throat.
I thought I was going to die because I could not breathe. And then you filled my mouth with something I
had never tasted before.
You then started to stroke my penis .....
Sandusky will burn in HELL with Joe Paterno and all the Penn State Scum that covered up this abuse.
damn...are you sharing your own personal experience? or a fantasy? Either way, you're disgusting.
CCB: is that a knock at your door?
I'm thinkin' it's a knock at CCB's back door - for close friends only.
This is sick, but probably very accurate to how Sandusky's abuse of these children went down. It should make you sick, but people need to read this and understand this is how these predators operate.
@whoknow. Don't encourage CCB. Most of us have an idea of what takes place. We don't need to read anyone's detailed fantasy.
It was supposed to be disgusting, Michael, you stupid moron. That is the nature of Child Abuse. Michael is probably a Penn State Coach or, worse, an alum.
Perhaps the defense faltered because what he did is indefensible.
Perhaps the defense faltered because what he did is indefensible.
Sandusky hurt himself. It wasn't his defence, it was him along. If he left those boys along, he wouldn't be in trouble, now would he? He should be shot, the queer bastard.
So now that this predatory child rapist knows he does not have a snowball's chance in hell of not being convicted and sent to prison for the rest of his life, what to stop him from taking the easy way out and committing suicide?
He's damn near 70, he would be a fool not to be seriously considering suicide. He can pull it off while incarcerated but not easily and his options would be limited. On the outside he can procure an easy, painless way out. It would be nice if he wrote out a complete confession before doing it.
when you make a little boys anus bleed, there is no defense
Having anal sex with little boys in the shower hurt Sandusky.
What a shame that these young adults had to testify about what happened to them; but, then again how strong they were to be able to do so. A pedophile is so very sick and while I know that as a teacher & was also trained to deal with child sexual abuse cases, the ball was seriously dropped here. I talked to a pedophile, listened to him, but found it hard to forgive. If something had been done on the onset of these allegations children would have been saved. Shame on Penn State and those who ignored the signals. A child comes to me, I question and then report. What happens after that depends upon the system, but I still follow up.
I wish him goodluck in the jail for a lifetime
And madam Dottie need sometime in jail too for pretending never see never hear and endangering the welfare of innocent children at the hands of her Predator Pedophile monster husband. She sees no evil hears no evil.
I wish I were on that jury, deliberation would not last very long.
lets face it, if this guy gets off its going to be a Clarance Darrow moment.
Give him a fair trail, then hang him! :D
The fix is being prepared. Sandusky will claim he had inadequate representation and I'm betting the courts will go along with it, buying him more time. There's something very fishy about this whole case. And as corrupt as this country's legal system is I doubt he's going to do any prison time. I hope I'm wrong.
Can't wait till they put him in the general population at whatever hell hole he gets sentenced to. What goes around, comes around. He wants dick, he will get more then he could ever imagine.
I wish someone could explain why that piece of complete @!$%# he is married to is not on trial, or facing some kind of charges as well. That bitch heard it ALL, and did NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My ? where are his(Sandusky's) children? Didn't he and his wife have or adopt 5 boys? It seems strange that not one of them testified. "McCoy" would have said they are not on the defense's witness list let's find out why.
Excellent point! Where was the rest of his family?
victims 11 through 16, perhaps.
My heart goes out to all those innocent boys.
Sandusky will burn in hell for what he has done to them. That smirk will be wiped off his face in no time.
his appeal will be based on the poor defense his lawyers gave him - just watch
Faltering defense hurt Sandusky? huh... i thought it was him raping and molesting kids that did him in.
Strap him down and start the pumps. The man needs to die.
I want to say up front that I think Sandusky is guilty and should be punished. That being said here is something to think about. Pedophile is a classified as a psychiatric disorder which cannot be cured only controlled. If I remember from what I was reading before homosexual was also a psychiatric disorder. It is now said that it is basically something that cannot be "cured" just like pedophile and that they are born that way. Both were considered psychiatric disorder so how long do you think it will be before it comes around that pedophiles need understanding and rights too. I know that there are some trying it already.
Basically what I am trying to say is both are not cureable and both were deemed psychiatric disorder so why now are we having homosexuality rammed down our throats as having to accept it? Seems more and more the default answer for doing things that is not acceptable is "Hey, it's not my fault. I was raised that way or born that way" Just a matter of time before pedophile is ok with society. If you think not read up about how bad homosexuality was thought of many years ago and now it is accepted.
Being a homosexual is not based on committing a crime...pedophiles are pedophiles because they have sex with children.
Homosexuality is a crime in some places and might get you killed. It's not a crime in the U.S. Pedophiles are criminals here but not in some other places. Pedophiles are pedophiles because they have sex with children. Homosexuals are homosexuals because they have sex with the same sex. What ever reason you use to base homosexuality being ok can be used for pedophile.
Homosexuality was de-listed as a disorder because it was consensual between adults. Pedophiles who act upon their urges are committing a crime against a child.
A pedophile who acts upon their urges is committing rape. Period.
This man is the very definition of 'creepy.' Send him to prison and throw away the key.
Karma is alive and well (Even the writers of "My Name Is Earl" couldn't have assembled this turn of events).
I recall seeing JS carrying paperwork in news footage recently. One wonders if any of his own input to the process was a factor here. It would seem fitting.
Tonight, the only dim light in Sparky's tunnel is that the jury won't be sentencing him.
All humans in every age and environment remain under the threat of someday experiencing life changing, unjust, brutal pain at the hand of their own species.
The old reasons given for such barbarism (devils, jinns, jealous desert gods, mysticism) retain far too much purchasing power in what is, last I looked, the 21st century.
Evolutionary medicine/psychology and perhaps some as of yet undiscovered field of study will help solve these puzzles in the centuries to come. That has been our remarkable story as a species to date: shining light into dark corners with the tool of science.
I hope the victims in all stories like these are a dwindling group and that empathy, not power, will lead the course for any future civilization long after we've been forgotten.
How long until we can expect a verdict??