Former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky has been sentenced to 30-60 years in prison in the Penn State Sex Scandal.

Jerry Sandusky (C) leaves the Centre County Courthouse after being sentenced
Jerry Sandusky (C) leaves the Centre County Courthouse after being sentenced (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
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Sandusky was convicted this summer of 45 counts of child sexual abuse, with each one carrying a possible sentence of 10 years.

Judge John Cleland issued the sentence Tuesday. Sandusky will first spend the next 10 days in a local jail.

Sandusky maintains his innocence and plans to appeal, a process his lawyer has said will probably begin in the coming weeks.

Sandusky professed his innocence again in court, saying repeatedly,  "I did not do these disgusting acts." He also said,  "This is the time when you find out who you’re friends are in the fourth quarter, those who stand by you," during his 13 minute statement. "I speak today with hope in my heart for a brighter day...this is the worst loss of my life."

Four of Sandusky's victims were in court.

CNN reports 3 spoke in court. "The sentence will never erase what he did to me. It will never make me whole," said Victim #5.

“If you seek forgiveness, Jesus will forgive you. There’s not any other way. Please repent, or there is a bigger judgment to come,” Victim No. 6, crying before taking the stand,  told the court.

An angry victim #4 said, “I will not forgive you, Jerry Sandusky. I will not forgive you, but I ask that all the other victims forgive me for not coming forward sooner.” His lawyer later told CNN's Soledad O'Brien that  "Sandusky is in denial that he committed any crimes'

"a masterpiece of banal self-delusion"

Lead prosecutor Joseph McGettigan called Sandusky a coward and "delusional" for the statements he made about his innocence, describing them as "a masterpiece of banal self-delusion" adding that he "displayed deviance, narcissism, a lack of (acknowledgement) for the pain he caused others.”

"It was, in short, ridiculous," the prosecutor said of Sandusky's statement.

He said that when Sandusky didn't take witness stand during trial, “he displayed the same cowardice that he displayed when he preyed on children."

McGettigan dismissed statements by Sandusky's legal team that they didn't have enough time to prepare a case and praised his team for their work on the case.

 

WHY SANDUSKY DIDN'T GET DUE PROCESS

 

Attorney Karl Rominger talks to reporters
Attorney  Joe Amendola talks to reporters (WBNS TV)
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Outside the Centre Couunty courthouse, Sandusky attorney Karl Rominger explained why he believes his client did not get a fair trial. "I can get three continuances for a parking ticket," he said. "We couldn't get one continuance for Sandusky.”

"We had to cut off our investigation to get ready to go to trial," Amendola said. What happens to Jerry Sandusky could happen to one of us. That’s something that should worry all of us."

 

 

He also took Penn State to task, picking up on themes of a conspiracy that Sandusky used in his statement played on a Penn State student radio station on Monday night. "If Jerry was such a beast, such a monster, why didn't the attorney general arrest him with the first investigation?" Amendola asked, referring to when the first sexual abuse allegations were made.

Amendola also raised the issue of a pardon for Sandusky after serving the initial 30 year sentence.

 

 

 

 

 

STATEMENT FROM PENN STATE

"Our thoughts today, as they have been for the last year, go out to the victims of Jerry Sandusky’s abuse. While today’s sentence cannot erase what has happened, hopefully it will provide comfort to those affected by these horrible events and help them continue down the road to recovery."


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