© 2024 WMRA and WEMC
WMRA : More News, Less Noise WEMC: The Valley's Home for Classical Music
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

As Sandusky Trial Begins, A 'Two-Minute Guide' To The Case

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky as he arrived at a courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., this morning.
Patrick Smith
/
Getty Images
Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky as he arrived at a courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., this morning.

Jury selection starts today in the trial of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who faces allegations that he sexually abused at least 10 boys over 15 years, sometimes on the school's campus. Sandusky has pleaded innocent.

Sandusky's arrest last fall and the scandal that followed cost legendary head coach Joe Paterno and the university's president their jobs. They allegedly didn't do enough to alert authorities to what Sandusky reportedly did. Two high-ranking university officials have been charged with lying to a grand jury about what they knew. They have also pleaded innocent.

NPR's Jeff Brady tells our Newscast Desk that "as the trial date approached, Sandusky's lawyers asked for a delay, saying they needed more time to prepare. But requests filed all the way up to the state supreme court were denied."

There have certainly been an enormous number of stories written and reported about the case.

If you'd like a recap, though, there's no better authority than Sara Ganim of The Patriot-News. She broke the story and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her work. In this video, Ganim offers a 2-minute summary.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.