The comment was:
What’s the Plan Here?
My Reply
The comment deserves a reply.
What is the plan, you ask? The plan is to report the truth. I believe the evidence shows Jerry Sandusky is innocent and was wrongly convicted.
The plan is to help prevent it from happening to others.
It may be true that Sandusky is out of options in the same legal system that falsely placed him in prison, but maybe many will ultimately learn the truth. That is the plan.
Don’t be too sure Sandusky is out of options.
Still, even if he is out of options and must die in prison, a group of liars should not enjoy their perjury-obtained millions without the world knowing they put an innocent man in prison. They are not brave. They are cowards.
And a group of prosecutors and government officials who had improper motivations, and certain trustees at Penn State, should not live with their deception or at best the wrongful results forever concealed.
And let us not forget the civil attorneys, the psychologists, the trial judge, the grand jury judge, and the media.
I was shocked to read many of the pre-trial news reports. Everyone was blatantly presumptive of Sandusky’s guilt. One major network had even positioned its news reporter in front of a large image that read “The Jerry Sandusky Scandal.”
It was not a “scandal,” but, with the presumption of innocence, it should have been a story about a defendant accused, but not convicted, of severe crimes.
My Role
For my part, this is not a story of a day or a week. It is a story of many weeks that will require relentless coverage. The same kind Sandusky received from the media. There will be plenty that is new.
Even if it were not new, it is the truth.
Truth trumps courts; it trumps public opinion. Truth trumps politics and political correctness. Truth is older than the hills.
If it is the truth, it will outlast you, me, the hills, and this world itself.
I don’t need a plan to tell the truth. The truth will take care of itself. And it will reach those for whom it is intended.
As for Sandusky, I believe there are few men with his strength. He has experienced the world’s presumption of guilt, and the hatred that comes from the perverse nature of the crimes he’s alleged to have committed. He has borne it with grace and inner conviction. That is a lesson in itself. That the entire world stands against you, thinks one thing of you, but something more powerful rebuts the world and keeps the spirit intact. Your inner knowledge of the truth.
Sandusky spent more than five years in solitary. He is 11 days from his 80th birthday, and has spent 11 years in prison.
He may die in prison, we don’t know.
In Drama
I recall lines from Maxwell Anderson’s Winterset, inspired by the story of anarchist immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were executed in 1927 on what time has revealed was a false robbery and murder charge. In the play, Bartolomeo Romagna is wrongfully convicted of killing a paymaster during a robbery.
Before the judge pronounces the sentence of death, Romagna is given an opportunity to speak and he says:
“In all my life, I have never stolen and I have never killed. I am an innocent man. Everyone who knows me knows this and you, Mr. Judge, you know this too. You will send me to my death. You should be sorry for me, but really it is me who is sorry for you. In the dark night, I will be before you, and you will know you have done wrong. You will be afraid. But me, I’m not afraid. It is not me who goes to death, Mr. Judge, it is you, a living walking death, with my face and my voice following you everywhere. And I’m sorry for you.”
In Winterset, it took years, and public revelations that Romagna was likely innocent, but the judge became a broken man, unsettled, and a wanderer.
Sandusky Had a Chance to Admit Guilt
After Sandusky spent seven years behind bars, with 23 more years to serve before he would be eligible for parole at age 98, he was given an opportunity for a reduced sentence if he admitted his guilt and showed remorse.
He told Judge Maureen Skerda, “I apologize that I’m unable to admit remorse for this, because it’s something that I didn’t do. No matter what, nobody or nothing will ever be able to take away what’s in my heart.”
The judge was unmoved and referring to the eight millionaires who testified against Sandusky as “brave young men,” chose not to reduce his sentence.
More to Follow
I do not feel sorry for Sandusky. I feel sorry for those who participated in his false conviction, and for those who can see the truth if they studied this case even a little, but who choose to ignore it.
My question for the anonymous commenter above, “Which are you?”
I have invited other writers, researchers, and investigators to contribute to the Frank Report on this topic. Soon readers will see what others who have studied the evidence think. In our next post, I will present what some who had no personal interest in the case, but who studied the evidence, have publicly said.
For more articles on the Sandusky case, visit the Frank Report.
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