The NCAA has shown a change of heart with regard to sanctions against Penn State over the past year or so. Perhaps former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky - currently serving a sentence for 30-to-60 years (essentially a life sentence) for sexually abusing 10 boys -- is hoping the judicial system works the same way. Sandusky has filed an appeal to throw out his 45-count conviction on the basis that pretrial publicity, leaks and an unprepared defense attorney led to an unfair trial process.
According to the Associated Press, the petition for an appeal is built on the foundation of an inadequate defense in the trial ans supposedly offers new evidence in Sandusky’s defense. State prosecutors in Pennsylvania are reviewing Sandusky’s appeal request, but have not responded at this time.
A new lawyer representing Sandusky says Sandusky’s right to a fair trial was “crushed under a stampede of vitriol, rage and prejudice.”
“The commonwealth’s entire case was a house of cards resting on testimony that trial counsel should have exposed as incompetent, unreliable and inadmissible,” Al Lindsay, Sandusky’s new lawyer. “The failure to even attempt to do so is inexcusable.”
Lindsay suggests Sandusky’s previous defense team of Joe Amendola and Karl Rominger “essentially abandoned” their client after not having a request to be removed from the case approved.
This is not the first time Sandusky was attempted to have an appeal. A previous appeal request was denied by the state Superior Court. Sandusky and his wife have continued to state the former Penn State assistant coach is innocent.