Posted on 02/13/2012 10:37:05 AM PST by John W
Centre County (Pa.) Judge John M. Cleland ruled this morning on a number of pretrial motions from Friday's hearing in the Jerry Sandusky case. And the big winner was Jerry Sandusky, whose trial can begin as early as May. From the Patriot-News of Harrisburg:
• Sandusky can see most of his grandchildren at home, provided a parent is present. He can also have contact with most of his grandchildren via computer. There is a custody battle involving three of his grandchildren, and whether Sandusky can contact those grandchildren is in the hands of another judge.
• Adult visitors may also come to Sandusky's home, though he must provide a list of 12 non-family members he intends to have over, and there are additional conditions.
• Sandusky can travel to help assist his defense team, though authorities must be given 36 hours' notice and a precise itinterary of his plans.
• Sandusky can go onto his back porch, from which he likes to throw biscuits to his dog. This despite neighbors' complaints that he had bee watching children from a nearby elementary school from there.
• Sandusky's request to have the transcripts of all grand jury witness testimony released was denied, but only because Cleland said the judge who had oversight of the grand jury could authorize that.
• The jury for Sandusky's upcoming trial will come from Centre County. Prosecutors had asked to have them come from somewhere else because, well, everyone in Centre County seems to have a connection to Penn State and The Second Mile, including some Centre County judges.
Famous football coach gets preferential treatment. No surprises here. He gets cut a break because Penn State made points under his watch and a few touchdowns are obviously far more important than some unimportant boys getting messed up for life by a rapist.
And unless you want to live in more of a police state it had better be that way. He hasn't been convicted of anything ... yet.
The prosecutor overreached with this “keep him inside the house because he can see a schoolyard three football fields away from the back porch” business. Presumption of innocence says you can’t just slap on layer after layer after layer of restrictions if you haven’t been convicted.
The judge may have done us all a favor. By warning the prosecutor not to get too cute he may help ensure this guy gets a solid conviction.
Correct. But, believe we have all heard of other cases of varying severity where the accused is treated somewhat differently before and during the trial than this person has been by the presiding judge.
(The whole thing is just revolting...)
I would hardly call these restrictions, “being able to do whatever one wants.” I wouldn’t want to live under those restrictions. He’ll be spending most his time in a small cell soon enough. Sure, it’s better than he deserves, but that’s our system. If everyone is doing there job, it should be impossible for him to do anything.
J'accuse Ciexyz de sympathies royalistes. Qu'on lui coupe la tête
Yep. And the defense wants the jury to be locals, because they know the locals care more for Penn State than they do about some stupid kids who got in the way of a potential Penn State dynasty.
Hopefully any computers he had at the time of his first arrest were impounded under a search warrant.
Oooooh. Let's do it for "the children."
We have much more to fear from the access the Obamas are given to "the children" than whatever access Sandusky is allowed. People know who Sandusky is and if they want to keep their children away from him they will.
And we don't find anyone innocent in a criminal trial. We find them "not guilty." There's a difference.
ML/NJ
That fool should never have posted bail. I wouldn’t care if they shut the whole school. For as much as the govt. wants to make everything about the children, they certainly do not care about past or potential victims of that evil freak.
This would be fine, if only the Fifth Amendment had been written as follows:
nor shall any person ..... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, except accused child molesters.
Neither have a lot of other people, spending time in jail or highly restricted, while they await trial. He should have been held without bail, just due to the number of victims, IMHO.
If you want to waive his presumption-of-innocence, then I take it you wish to waive your own if you are ever ACCUSED of something?
Never said that. Have, as others here have noted, seen folks with no bail allowed or much more restrictive bail conditions awaiting or during trails for varying levels of accusations. Don’t know if his has went the way it has because it is appropriate, because of the territory and and the interaction between so many of the folks involved, or most scarily if the homosexual pedophile mafia has begun to take over the country. Some times it just feels that way.
I'm sure he's guilty, but you can't make exceptions to the legal presumption of innocence without destroying the whole rights thing that the government has been working on destroying for decades.
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