During opening statements this week, Joe Amendola promised jurors they would hear from Jerry Sandusky, but does that actually mean he'll take the stand?
Former prosecutor Wendy Murphy, a legal analyst for MSNBC, says it would be "malpractice" for Amendola to make a move like that.
"I'll eat my shoe if that guy takes the stand," Murphy said this week on MSNBC.
She says Amendola's strategy may be to play video of interviews that Sandusky has done instead, like the exclusive phone interview with Bob Costas that had this unforgettable exchange:
Costas: Are you a pedophile?
Sandusky: No.
Costas: are you sexually attracted to young boys, to underaged boys?
Sandusky: Am I sexually attracted to underaged boys?
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Costas: Yes.
Sandusky: Sexually attracted? You know, I enjoy young people, I, I love to be around them. I, I, but no, I'm not sexually attracted to young boys.
"When there are 10 different victims, eight of them are going to take the stand and the testimony is so abhorrent, so disturbing, the reason you don't put a defendant on the stand, no matter how great a guy you think he may come across as in front of a jury is that then the prosecution gets to go through each and every statement by each and every victim over and over again," Murphy said.
Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, faces 52 counts of child sex abuse involving 10 boys over a 15-year time span.
The first week of testimony wrapped on Thursday with alleged Victim No. 9 giving some of the most disturbing and graphic details of the week. He said at one point when he being abused, he screamed for help in Sandusky's basement, but that no heard him. Prosecutors are expected to wrap their case early in the week, perhaps as early as Monday. Then it's Amendola's turn.
"Mind you, this guy [Sandusky] is so nutty and he's done such kooky things and his lawyer, I think is really giving him wacky advice, I a may end up eating my shoe," Murphy said.
