Sandusky guilty on 45 counts

philly.com ^ | 6/22/2012 | Jeremy Roebuck

[Morgana]

BELLEFONTE, Pa. — A Centre County jury found Jerry Sandusky guilty of 45 counts of child sex abuse late Friday night, closing the first chapter in a scandal that tarnished a university and led to the ouster of four of its top administrators.

The panel of seven women and five men returned their verdict after about 21 hours of deliberations over two days. The former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach now faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.

Over the course of his eight-day trial, jurors heard from eight accusers who said Sandusky, 68, molested them as boys during a period spanning from the mid-1990s until 2009.

[MD Expat in PA]

I served on a jury one time: robbery, auto theft, aggravated assault, resisting arrest. The perp tried to claim that it wasn’t him; he was just innocently at a phone booth after attending a party and minding his own business when a cop for no reason what so ever arrested him. But he couldn’t remember who he was calling at the phone booth, the name of people having the party or the address or anyone there and the cop testified he saw the perp coming out of the store he robbed and breaking into a car and speeding away. The cop never lost sight of him even after he bailed out of the car and the store owner identified him.

When we went into the jury room and before any deliberation, the foreman asked “Who thinks he’s guilty, raise your hand”. Without hesitation we all raised our hands. We spent the next ½ hour talking about the weather, sports, etc. because we didn’t think it would look good if we came back with a verdict after only 1 minute. Just before we called for the bailiff to inform the court we reached a verdict, we took one more vote and again without hesitation – guilty on all counts.

[Fester Chugabrew]

Here you go:

[Morgana]