Sandusky sentencing leaves widespread damage in its wake

The fact that Jerry Sandusky’s defense team will be claiming insufficient time to prepare for his trial as their basis for filing for a retrial is perhaps testament to how dismal the 68-year-old’s situation is. He has been found guilty of 45 counts of sexual abuse and sentanced to 30 to 60 years in prison, essentially a life sentence at his age. However, the damage done reverberates far beyond the courtroom. “Sandusky wrecked his own life, and the lives of his victims and their families,” wrote Scranton Pennsylvania news anchor Andy Palumbo. “The reputation of Penn State University took a major hit. The football program was almost destroyed. The Second Mile Charity is gone. The PSU Board of Trustees is in turmoil. Civil suits are piling up. This has already cost the university millions, and it will get a lot more expensive before it’s over.” This also has been a drastic political blow to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, who is being hammered with criticism from his opponents over how the attorney general handled the investigation.

A letter from Sandusky’s wife, Dottie Sandusky, insisting her husband is not “the monster everyone is making him out to be” and attempting to discredit their adopted son, did little to stir sympathy among the public or the courtroom. Their adopted son, Matt Sandusky, who had made statements to the prosecution that he was sexually abused by his adopted father as a child, was addressed by Mrs Sandusky in her letter. “The world needs to know what kind of person he is,” Mrs Sandusky wrote, calling him a “liar” and a “thief.” Matt Sandusky’s lawyers defended him, issuing a statement saying, “Rather than supporting her son when he made the gut wrenching and courageous decision to…tell about the abuse he suffered…Dottie Sandusky has chosen to continue Jerry’s strategy of blaming and attacking the victim.”