Sandusky also testified that he would have taken the stand during his trial but his attorney told him to stay silent. “All you have to do is say you’re innocent.’ That was the extent of what I was expecting”.
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He was convicted in 2012 of sexually abusing 10 boys, as eight of the victims testified against him during the first trial.
Among the issues are decisions not to have him testify at trial and how the defense responded to a surprise claim midway through the trial by an adopted son who says Sandusky molested him.
If the judge rules in Sandusky’s favor he could get a new trial.
Sandusky also denied having oral or anal sex with anyone and that he found the thought disgusting. I love to be around them.
Now just four years into his 30- to 60-year sentence on 45 counts of child molestation, Sandusky hopes to finally take the witness stand for himself in the hopes of delivering a testimony moving enough to earn the former coordinator his freedom for the first time since 2012. Sandusky said the plan had been for Amendola to go to NY for the interview, but after he arrived there he decided it would be better to have Sandusky call in and assert his innocence.
Among the points argued on appeal is that Sandusky was denied an opportunity to take the stand in his own defense at trial.
The former Penn State assistant coach testified for an hour Friday during an appeals hearing in which he’s hoping to have his conviction thrown out or get a new trial.
As he entered the courtroom Friday in a loose-fitting orange jumpsuit, Sandusky appeared visibly frailer, thinner and balder than he had four years earlier.
“I was a novice and I assumed Mr. Amendola was the expert on this”, Sandusky said.
“If a textbook were to be written on how not to try a sex-offense case involving overwhelming media attention, this case would provide the model”, Sandusky’s appellate attorney, Al Lindsay, wrote in court filings this year, Philly.com reports.
He said he never planned to give what turned out to be a disastrous November 2011 TV interview with Bob Costas, in which he appeared to struggle with the question “Are you sexually attracted to young boys?”.
He lost previous appeals to the state Superior and Supreme courts.
The hearing is expected to continue on August 22 and August 23.
Sandusky said he had meant to testify to the jury in his own defense, but was talked out of it at the time by his Amendola.
The 72-year-old Sandusky didn’t testify at his trial in 2012.
Jerry Sandusky was visibly emotional and frustrated during his testimony Friday, when he was asked if any of the victim testimony was true.
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“We think that, based on the evidence, our chances are good the judge will grant a new trial”, his current attorney, Alexander Lindsay, told Reuters.
