“It was a conspiracy…I didn’t have time to prepare for trial…I’m not a monster.” You have to hand it to Jerry Sandusky – he’s sticking to his story. The question is why.

On Tuesday, Sandusky was sentenced in Centre County Superior Court to 30-60 years, a de facto life sentence (Trib 10/10) that followed his conviction on 45 counts of various sex crimes against young boys while an assistant football coach at Penn State.

Sandusky’s conviction was based on years of documented allegations as well as the appearance of several victims and an eye witness, all of whom …

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In the last few weeks there has been a disturbing repetition of vigilante justice aimed at sex offenders. In some cases, including the Port Angeles man who killed two registered sex offenders because “it had to be done,” it was vigilante justice. In Shiner, Texas, a rancher killed a man he alleged was molesting his daughter. The sheriff refused to arrest the father and the grand jury concurred.

I previously wrote on both incidents, arguing that the justice system has no need for vigilante executions. It does, however, have a strong need for people willing to step forward and protect …

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I have spent a great deal of time, energy and words defending what I consider to be our excellent system of criminal justice. Then comes this headline from a News Tribune article, “Lake Tapps sex-crimes defendant gets OK to view child porn in jail.”

I am done defending this system, at least for the moment.

In 2007 our State Supreme Court ruled that access to child pornography should be provided to the attorney for the defense. These noble jurists, with their high LSAT scores and well-laundered robes undoubtedly thought this a fair ruling. But in …

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