Jerry Sandusky's Crimes and the Accountability of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett

June 25, 2012
By: Dave Zirin

Graduate assistant Mike McQueary’s infamous actions in the Penn State showers upon catching Sandusky sodomizing a child  - slam a locker, tell someone in a position of power, try to forget it -  is symbolic of actions up the chain of command. It’s a chain of command that goes all the way to the  office of the Governor and former State Attorney General, Tom Corbett.

Now that the verdict is in; now that Jerry Sandusky is no longer an “alleged” child predator and his accusers can’t be labeled as “alleged” victims, the road toward justice truly begins. For anyone who thinks the difficult part is over, think again. It's easy to shake our heads at the monster Sandusky. It's easy to respond like the people who gathered at the courthouse in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania and cheer while clowning around for the cable news cameras. It’s easy to feel satisfied now that the 68-year-old Sandusky was found guilty and will spend the remainder of his miserable life in prison. It’s easy to do what we’ve always done in this country as Sandusky was walked out the courthouse's back door "just 50 yards downhill from where they used to hang criminals in the courtyard of the old county jail." 

America's always been very good at forming a crowd ready to cheer a good hanging. The national fabric has been woven with witch trials, executions, torture, and now Presidential kill lists and on it goes. We love to slay those we label as monsters. We are less vigilant about the people who allow the monsters to roam the countryside. They get to write books, give lectures, and be guests on the late night talk show circuit. (See Rumsfeld, Donald.)

There are many “Rumsfelds” in the People vs. Jerry Sandusky. During the trial, two facts kept appearing like a reoccurring malignancy. The first was something we already knew: that Jerry Sandusky's God-like  stature as defensive football guru at Penn State was his tool for both attracting children and winning the unquestioned trust of parents or guardians. The other stubborn fact is that people in positions of power at the university and in state politics smothered accusations as they swirled around Sandusky and his children’s charity, The Second Mile.

Law enforcement was aware of allegations against Sandusky going back to 1995. At Penn State, the awareness that something was “off” about Sandusky’s interaction with children reaches back even further. They chose not to act, or in the case of late coach Joe Paterno, did the bare legal minimum and as a result, more children were harmed. Brand protection for both the football program and a research university with a 1.8 billion dollar endowment mattered more to those in power than acting aggressively. Graduate assistant Mike McQueary’s infamous actions in the Penn State showers upon catching Sandusky sodomizing a child  - slam a locker, tell someone in a position of power, try to forget it -  is symbolic of actions up the chain of command. It’s a chain of command that goes all the way to the  office of the Governor and former State Attorney General, Tom Corbett.

Corbett released a statement after the verdict saying, "I….want to commend the multiple victims in this case who had the courage to come forward and testify in court, confronting Sandusky, and proving beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty of these reprehensible crimes.”

Upon being elected, Corbett then moved deftly from doing nothing to immediately try to deflect the entire weight of the scandal onto Joe Paterno and Penn State itself, using his recently appointed position as a member of the school’s Board of Trustees (an automatic appointment for all Pennsylvania Governors) to do so.

ESPN’s Outside the Lines reported,

       “As Pennsylvania’s attorney general, [Corbett] investigated Sandusky for nearly two years but failed to make an arrest. But then, as governor, he blamed the university’s leaders for not doing more. One was Paterno, who some board members believed wielded too much power. The other was university president Graham B. Spanier, a 16-year veteran and Corbett rival who had become a vocal opponent of the governor’s efforts to slash higher education funding. And when he was on campus the next day, after Spanier’s resignation and Paterno’s firing, he celebrated the leadership changes. 'Throughout this whole process, I felt he had some ulterior motive,’ a trustee says of Corbett. ‘Most trustees felt uncomfortable with his role. It was odd for him to be there and participate the way he did. Very odd.'”

Governor Corbett has much to answer for in the weeks and months ahead. But unlike the monster Sandusky or Joe Paterno, the hardly blameless but also all-to-convenient lightning rod, he can ride this out unless there’s some semblance of public outrage. Corbett has a public relations team, a press office, and national ambitions. We just have a snapshot that certainly makes it appear like Governor Corbett personified what's meant by "the banality of evil." Sandusky’s conviction will convince many that now that the monster is behind bars, we should move on. But if we want to make sure that monsters don’t roam the countryside in the future, we had better hold the lord of the manor to accounts.