Just a couple days after Jerry Sandusky was found guilty on 45 counts of child sexual abuse, his lawyers are already hinting at an appeal. Read the details after the jump.
(CBS/AP) BELLEFONTE, Pa. – One of Jerry Sandusky’s lawyers, attorney Joe Amendola, says he will not lead the appeals process because he intends to testify as a witness to their ineffective counsel appeal, CBS News has learned.
Earlier, Amendola and others on Sandusky’s defense team said they tried to quit at the start of jury selection in his child sex abuse trial because they weren’t given enough time to prepare, raising an argument on the trial’s speed that could become the thrust of an appeal.
A day after Sandusky’s conviction, his lawyers disclosed Saturday they felt too unprepared to adequately defend him because of how quickly the case was brought to trial. Experts have said the seven months between Sandusky’s November arrest and trial was fast-paced by Pennsylvania standards.
Sandusky’s attorneys raised other issues that could be part of the future appeal, saying a mistrial was sought and denied over a repetition at trial of a brief part of a November interview Sandusky had with NBC’s Bob Costas.
Sandusky was convicted of 45 child sex abuse counts, and one of the jurors said he was swayed by the “very convincing” testimony of eight accusers who said the retired Penn State assistant football coach molested them for years.
Jurors in the two-week trial convicted Sandusky of 45 of the 48 counts against him, meaning Sandusky, 68, likely will die in prison.
In addition to raising the likely grounds for their appeal case, Amendola also told CBS News Sandusky’s wife Dottie and his other adopted children were prepared to testify against Matt Sandusky, the adopted son who claimed he had been molested by his father but never took the stand.
Amendola, who said he was going to visit Sandusky in jail sometime this week, also claimed he never prepared his closing arguments. He says he literally stood in the shower and said: “God, help me find the words to defend Jerry as best I can.” He says it was all from the heart.
