Sandusky Is Sentenced to at Least 30 Years
BELLEFONTE, Pa.—Former Pennsylvania State University football coach Jerry Sandusky was sentenced Tuesday to between 30 and 60 years in prison, four months after his conviction in the sexual abuse of 10 boys over a decade and a half.
The sentence all but ensures that Mr. Sandusky, 68 years old, will spend the rest of his life in a state prison. Legal experts said the chances of Mr. Sandusky's successfully appealing his conviction were remote, and state law doesn't allow parole until the minimum sentence is served.
Mr. Sandusky had faced a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of more than 200 years.
Wearing a red prison jumpsuit with "Centre County" printed on the back, Mr. Sandusky stood motionless in a crowded but hushed courtroom as Judge John Cleland read a list of individual sentences for 45 counts related to child sex abuse. Mr. Sandusky, a former longtime defensive coordinator, was convicted of those crimes in June.
The case has rocked Penn State and the surrounding region, leading to the ouster of the university's president and longtime head football coach Joe Paterno, who died in January. Penn State accepted tough sanctions that will likely hobble its football program for years, and it has taken steps to improve oversight of administrators.
"The tragedy of this crime is that it's a story of betrayal," Judge Cleland said before handing down the sentence in Centre County Court. "Those who have never encountered a pedophile can hardly begin to understand the anguish of those who have been so expertly deceived.…The crime is not only what you did to their bodies but what you did to their psyches and souls."
After Mr. Sandusky was led from the courtroom, his attorney, Joe Amendola, called the sentence "reasonable." But he later said he would argue on appeal that the judge rushed the case to trial by repeatedly denying requests for more time. "We had 4½ months flying by the seat of our pants," Mr. Amendola said. "That's the due-process issue."
The lead prosecutor, Joe McGettigan, called the sentence "wise and proper." In addressing the judge earlier, he referred to Mr. Sandusky as "the most insidious and depraved of criminals."
Mr. Sandusky, who chose not to testify at trial, made a lengthy statement in the courtroom and again denied the charges. "Others can take my life. They can make me out as a monster," he said. "They can't take away my heart, and in my heart I know that I didn't commit these alleged disgusting acts."
In jail, Mr. Sandusky said, he has been meditating and clinging to a card bearing the word "hope." At times, he appeared to be addressing the public at large. "Please don't close the book today at sentencing," he said. "There's a lot left to learn, if you choose to do that." At the end of his statement, his voice cracked as he spoke of being separated from his family.
Attention will turn now to a criminal trial of two former campus officials charged with perjury in a grand-jury investigation of Mr. Sandusky. That trial is set to begin in January. Four civil suits also have been filed against Penn State by men who say the university was negligent in failing to prevent abuse committed by Mr. Sandusky.
Joel Feller, a Philadelphia attorney who represents several young men who say they are victims of Mr. Sandusky, said there is a "realistic possibility" that civil claims against the university can be settled by year-end, a goal set by the school.
Wes Oliver, a law professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, said the chance of reaching civil settlements is "always high." In this case, he said, "every day this drags on in the news, Penn State's brand suffers."
In a statement Tuesday, Penn State said: "While today's sentence cannot erase what has happened, hopefully it will provide comfort to those affected by these horrible events and help them continue down the road to recovery."
Before the sentencing, three young men who testified at Mr. Sandusky's trial read statements in court and said they were still suffering from being befriended and then sexually abused by Mr. Sandusky. "I will never erase the filthy images of his naked body against mine, but he must pay for his crimes which he has now been convicted of," said a young man identified as Victim 5. At trial, he testified that he was molested in a shower on the Penn State campus by Mr. Sandusky. "He took away my childhood the day he assaulted me," the young man said.
Judge Cleland directly addressed Mr. Sandusky's victims. "The fact that you were assaulted is no cause for embarrassment or shame," the judge said. "It is for your courage and not for your assault that you will be remembered. And it is that on which you must focus if you are going to become whole and healed."
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