01/06/26 12:32:00
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01/06 12:30 CST Joseph McGettigan, prosecutor in Jerry Sandusky and John du
Pont cases, dies at 76
Joseph McGettigan, prosecutor in Jerry Sandusky and John du Pont cases, dies at
76
By MARK SCOLFORO
Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) --- Joseph E. McGettigan III, a Pennsylvania prosecutor
who obtained criminal convictions against Penn State assistant football coach
Jerry Sandusky and chemical heir John du Pont, has died at age 76.
McGettigan, who lived in the Philadelphia suburb of Media, died on Dec. 31,
according to the funeral home Boyd Horrox Givnish Life Celebration Home of East
Norriton.
He was a senior deputy attorney general when he served as a lead prosecutor in
the trial of Sandusky on child molestation charges in 2012. During the closing
argument, McGettigan showed jurors photos of eight of Sandusky's victims as
children, all of whom had taken the stand.
"He molested and abused and hurt these children horribly," McGettigan said. "He
knows he did it, and you know he did it. Find him guilty of everything."
Sandusky was convicted of 45 of 48 counts.
McGettigan was an assistant district attorney in Delaware County when he
prosecuted du Pont, who was found guilty of third-degree murder but mentally
ill in the death of Olympic gold medal-winning freestyle wrestler David Schultz
at du Pont's palatial estate outside Philadelphia in 1996. Schultz come to live
and train at a state-of-the-art training center that du Pont had built on his
property.
Du Pont died in a Pennsylvania prison in 2010 at the age of 72. Sandusky, 81,
is currently serving a 30- to 60-year sentence in state prison.
McGettigan's work as prosecutor, which also included a stint in Philadelphia,
often involved murder and child molestation cases. More recently he had been a
lawyer in private practice, including work on behalf of crime victims.
Survivors include his wife, Gay Warren; his mother, Ruth L. McGettigan; and six
siblings.
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