Jerry Sandusky's conviction Friday night on 45 counts of child sexual abuse may be just a beginning rather than an end to one of the most dramatic criminal episodes in Pennsylvania history. Sandusky must be sentenced and his attorneys, Joe Amendola and Karl Rominger, promise there will be appeals to his conviction and sentence. Two Penn State officials arrested in connection with the case, former athletic director Timothy Curley and retired Penn State finance director Gary Schultz, will be going to trial this fall. They have been charged with failure to report child abuse and lying to a grand jury.
The charges stem from an alleged report to them by former Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary, who testified he witnessed Sandusky committing a serious sexual act against a boy he estimated to be only 10 to 12 years old. And, according to Blair County attorney Robert Donaldson, it is likely even more Sandusky victims will come forward. Donaldson has been acting as a legal analyst for the Mirror during the Sandusky trial. Attorney General Linda Kelly, speaking to a sometimes restive crowd numbering hundreds of local residents outside the Centre County Courthouse late Friday night, said the investigation into the Sandusky affair is "ongoing."
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Dr. James Cantor, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, was recently interviewed on CNN about Jerry Sandusky, pedophiles, and child molestors. The CNN.com post asked, "Do pedophiles deserve sympathy?" Dr. Cantor's professional opinion was that while pedophilia may be a genetic aberration, one has a "choice" whether to act or not on one's pedophilic impulses.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who has followed, even superficially, the developments in neuroscience over the past two decades would be hard put to find any neuroscientific support for Dr. Cantor's allegations. The question of sympathy aside, Mr. Sandusky had no "choice" in his behaviors; he was neurologically compelled to engage in his molestations.