Jerry Sandusky’s Lawyers Think They Can Get Him A New Trial

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Jerry Sandusky’s lawyers believe they have a 50 percent chance of getting a new trial for their client thanks to a recent ruling by a Pennsylvania appeals court.

The defendant in the unrelated case they’re citing was convicted in 2005 on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful restraint, simple assault, false imprisonment, and indecent assault. But the court this week granted him a new trial on the basis that his attorneys did not have enough time to prepare.

This is consistent with arguments that Sandusky’s lawyers repeatedly made throughout the trial about the lack of time they’d been given, said Sandusky’s attorney, Karl Rominger.

“It’s ironic and serendipitous that the ruling came right after the Sandusky sentencing,” he told BuzzFeed. (The circumstances in the other case don’t seem as quite as extreme as what Sandusky’s lawyers dealt with — it was a death penalty case in which one lawyer was assigned to the defendant two weeks before trial.)

Rominger said that appeals usually have a 10-15 percent chance of succeeding, but he feels strongly that this argument greater than average chance of going through.

Asked when he would tell his client enough is enough, Rominger pointed to the 300 people freed by the Innocence Project, many of whom spent long periods in jail before being exonerated.

“I guess everybody can quit at some point, but that’s not going to change the circumstances and that’s not going get you out of jail and that’s not going to get you back with your family,” he said. “If you are innocent then you have to lay down your principles and fight.”