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Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky has officially withdrawn his recantation claim for a witness that said he would walk back his 2012 testimony that Sandusky abused him.
Sandusky appeared in court remotely Tuesday for a hearing on a claim that an accuser wanted to recant allegations that Sandusky sexually abused him years ago.
The hearing was part of the latest bid by Sandusky's lawyers to secure a new trial for him. The hearing was originally intended to be an evidentiary hearing before Sandusky's lawyers withdrew that part of their petition and are pursuing a route toward federal court.
But the judge refused to cancel Tuesday's hearing, meaning it still went ahead. And after Sandusky officially withdrew his recantation claim, Judge Maureen Skerda dismissed his post-conviction relief request, per FOX43.
It was Sandusky's first public appearance since he was re-sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison in a 2019 hearing, the same sentence he had initially received seven years earlier.
Jerry Sandusky is pictured when he last appeared publicly for a resentencing in 2019
Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse in 2012 after eight young men testified
Sandusky, 82, has been serving a decades-long prison sentence since he was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse in 2012, after eight young men testified about what happened to them as boys. He has repeatedly lost efforts to get a new trial.
The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General had said the supposed recantation was 'highly suspect.'
The accuser, identified in court documents as R.R., said he was coached extensively by authorities, that he could 'safely affirm details I did not fully recall,' he said in an affidavit filed by Sandusky's attorneys.
R.R.'s allegations were 'based on suggestive leading questioning, prosecutorial coercion and influence, confirmatory bias and memory manipulation,' defense attorneys said.
Sandusky was the defensive coordinator at one of the country's top football programs under Hall of Fame head coach Joe Paterno. The scandal led to Paterno's firing, and the university paid more than $100 million to people who said they were abused by Sandusky.
Authorities said he found and groomed boys at The Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk youth. Sandusky has repeatedly declared his innocence.
'I apologize that I'm unable to admit remorse for this because it's something that I didn't do,' Sandusky said during a 2019 court appearance.
R.R., who was 25 years old at trial, testified that when he was 11, Sandusky sexually abused him in the coach's basement in 1998, a transcript shows.
Sandusky worked under legendary head coach Joe Paterno at Penn State
Sandusky maintains his innocence and claimed: 'I intend to be alive when the truth is heard'
Sandusky has claimed that he would not receive a fair hearing in Centre County, alleging that he has previously brought matters he believed proved he deserved a fair trial before Pennsylvania courts.
'Over the years I have brought 15 serious issues before Pennsylvania's courts, each one showing I deserve a new trial,' Sandusky said, via ESPN. 'Every one was swatted down.
'I have no faith this one would be treated differently, no matter how compelling the evidence. In federal court, every one of those issues can be heard together by judges who have not already made up their minds about me... I need to get there as fast as possible.
'I am 82 years old. I am innocent. I intend to be alive when the truth is heard.'
