Or, the commonwealth refused to acknowledge it's prosecutorial misconduct. In PA, this game is rigged.
Nobody wants Sandusky to walk out of prison on a technicality for the same reason everyone wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. What Jerry is supposed to have done is stomach turning. It sends chills through all of us.
However, the desired narrative was sold to us. The Sandusky case was intentionally and strategically turned into a circus by the prosecution. The media bought in en masse and whipped up the mob. It started with the brazen embellishment of McQueary's grand jury testimony, poster size photos of Tim Curley and Gary Shultz, alongside and as equally prominent as Jerry's at the PC to announce Jerry's indictment, and Frank Noonan's character assassination of Joe Paterno. And that's just the beginning of the insanity.
Tom Corbett and his OAG were not going to take on Sandusky and lose. Political careers hung in the balance. The problem is that their case wasn't very strong. Trying Jerry in the court of public opinion was part of a strategy. So was taking a quantity over quality approach with respect to the charges. Maybe they truly believed Sandusky was a monster and didn't care how they put him away, as long as he was put away? Or maybe there were other factors involved. I don't know.
What I do believe is demonstrable is that a concerted effort was made to shift the focus away from TSM and onto PSU. I also believe that no one in PA had or has the political courage to give Jerry a fair trial.
Corbett was only a minor part of the situation.
Prosecutors spinning a criminal version of facts of crimes that never occurred and feeding them to journalists to condemn the innocent is a crime and should be punishable by law.
The mainstream media has to recognize the part they are playing in the grand scheme of a defendants downfall. Realizing the government lies and twist facts for their own benefit has become more apparent with the Whites Houses version of the Meuller Report.
I would suspect that journalists would be highly offended if they were accused of violating fellow citizen's civil rights by writing erroneous facts.
Facts that condemn these citizens to death, the loss of liberty, disgrace, loss of reputation, bankruptcy,the inability to be employed. Facts that convince their neighbors, coworkers and the region of the citizens' guilt, all on the words of unscrupulous prosecutors.
Interpreting laws to give the government the upper hand is the intended outcome over defendants and using the media to instill outrage on alleged crimes works especially well. Jurors rely on prosecutors, to tell the truth, not sway the verdict with confusion and fear.
The media influences the public, the jury and the trial judges, a fact that has not escaped them. Prosecutors voices are believed over defendants who are always assumed to be guilty by the media and juries.
Innocent voices fall on deaf ears, while prosecutors have prime time 24-hour coverage.
If criminal justice reform can take place it has to start with the media being aware of the injustice they have caused to innocent defendants. The conversation of reform has to include the media or all is lost, all the good works by individuals trying to right all the wrongs committed by prosecutors who lie will come to nothing without dedicated journalists working with defendants, not against them.
