Jury selection begins today in Jerry Sandusky’s child sex abuse trial
Is it even possible to find an impartial juror where the case against Sandusky is being tried, in Centre County, home of Penn State?
Robert Power, a law professor at Widener University in Dauphin County says the impartial people are there, “but it will take a while to find them. In a normal criminal case you can pick a jury in an hour or two because very few people are going to know anything about the case. This case is the opposite.”
The court has blocked off the rest of the week for jury selection.
Power adds it will also be difficult to find jurors who haven’t already made up their minds about the case, given the huge amount of media coverage it has gotten.
Similar media attention in past trials have prompted juries to be sequestered, so they’re not talking about the case with outside observers, or learning about it in the news.
Power says he thinks that’s unlikely, given the huge expense it would be to the state.
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