Tuesday, December 13, 2011

"Pittsburgh Defense Attorneys Question Sandusky Strategy"

Attorney Paletta's view:

"Two veteran Pittsburgh defense lawyers questioned the decision by former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's lawyer to waive his client's right to a preliminary hearing today.

Another Pittsburgh defense attorney, Joseph Paletta, said waiving the hearing "was certainly a reasonable decision under the circumstances."

One reason lawyers will do that is if an accuser doesn't appear or isn't available for the trial, the prosecutor could introduce the transcript of the witness's preliminary hearing testimony "to remedy that unavailability," Mr. Paletta said. Without it, the witness's no-show creates an "automatic win" for the defense at trial, he said.

Another reason supporting a decision to waive the hearing is that the victims' testimony was likely to be ugly and traumatic "with the likelihood that the case would be held for court anyway," he said."


Source: PostGazette, "Pittsburgh defense attorneys question Sandusky strategy" Jon Schmitz, Dec. 13, 2011