Court refuses to hear Sandusky decision

HARRISBURG, Pa.—Jerry Sandusky won’t get a fresh chance to argue in state court he should get a new trial, seven years after the former Penn State assistant football coach was convicted of molesting 10 boys.

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down Sandusky’s request that it review a Superior Court decision earlier this year rejecting most of his arguments.

His lawyer says he was surprised and disappointed by the justices’ decision.

Defense attorney Al Lindsay said it is likely Sandusky, 75, will seek help from the federal courts, and he expects to meet with Sandusky later this week at the State Correction Institution at Laurel Highlands.

Sandusky’s November 2011 arrest led to the firing of his longtime boss, head football coach Joe Paterno, and the forcing out of then-university president Graham Spanier.

Paterno died in 2012, months before Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse.

Sandusky had filed a multifaceted appeal that argued the investigation, trial and sentencing were replete with errors, but the three-judge Superior Court panel was largely unswayed in February, followed by the one-page order issued Wednesday.

Sandusky had argued his own lawyers should have kept him from giving a TV interview after his arrest, that his failure to testify was improperly cited by a prosecutor and that he should have been given information about changes to victims’ stories before trial.