Gird yourselves for a week of defense testimony in the Sandusky trial, much of which is bound to be coming out of deep left field. For the defense to hit a home run in the face of last week’s prosecution witnesses attesting to their serial abuse by the ex-assistant coach will require the crafty Amendola and his team’s best and most creative collection of fabrications.
As a preview, one of their cornerstones will be the assertion that Sandusky suffers from histrionic personality disorder, a classification of mental illness described by the NIH as “a condition in which people act in a very emotional and dramatic way that draws attention to themselves.” That’s nice, but what does it do for the defense? It might serve to explain his behavior with respect to the accusers but it does not mitigate his sexually predatory actions and it does not render him incompetent to stand trial.
One commentator noted that the jury would likely dismiss the ploy as merely renaming pedophilia. A rose by any other name would not smell as sweet, and a pedophile by any other name would not smell as foul.
The defense will undoubtedly attempt to discredit Mike McQueary, especially since he changed his story about the date of the attack he claimed to have witnessed by a whole year.
Given that 10 boys (most now men) have explicitly accused Sandusky, and that “love letters” written by Sandusky are part of the body of evidence, Amendola has a formidable task ahead of him and his team. Remember, however, that they must merely instill immutable doubt of Sandusky’s guilt in one juror as the basis for a successful defense.
We’ll keep a cynical eye trained on the machinations in Bellefonte.
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jd says
just wish they would throw him down a hole and be done with it.
want this to be over and i want to hear pads crack.
The Nittany Turkey says
We share that sentiment, Drozz. Lock him up, throw away the key, and let’s ramp up for some ballin’.
—TNT
Elizabeth Harris says
I am not sure where the histrionic defense comes from. Pedophiles are classified under the Antisocial Personality Disorder according to the DSM IV and would be considered sociopaths or psychopaths. I have never heard of a legal defense based on histrionics.
Meanwhile, we have the body parts guy up here being returned to Canada and he has pled “not guilty” and will likely go for the “not criminally responsible defense.” So, another abuse of the taxpayers money for a long trial nothwithstanding that someone is innocent until proven guilty. But it would help if these creeps just pled guilty from the get go.
The Nittany Turkey says
You’re approaching it like a nurse instead of a defense attorney, who doesn’t really give a rat’s ass about the operative definition in DSM-IV, but merely wants to get his client off the hook. Nobody ever heard of a legal defense based on histrionics, but I imagine a few have been constructed centering on personality disorders such as histrionic personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, or borderline personality disorder. I also bet that in each case the judge looked at the testimony with a jaundiced eye.
The whole thing will be moot perhaps as early as Friday. Today the defense rested. The lawyers now must deliver their closing statements and then the judge will hand the case over to the jury, which will be sequestered. If they want to have a nice weekend with their families, then they’ll return a verdict of guilty on all counts.
—TNT
Lizzie says
Having worked in forensics, defense cases being declared NCR (not criminally responsible in Canada) and not guilty by reason of insanity in U.S. are usually more plausible if the defendent has a major mental disorder (Axis 1) with some form of psychosis rather than a personality disorder (Axis 2). The latter classifications, for the most part, do not render one out of touch with reality which is the basis for a defendent not knowing what the hell he was doing when he did what he did. If they use an insanity defense then the operative definition will come in to play with some forensic psychiatrist on the stand. All to say, no one would get off with a diagnosis of histrionic PD, so you are right that it is a laughable defense to say the least.