Joseph McGettigan III, the Pennsylvania prosecutor best known for convicting Jerry Sandusky and John du Pont, has died at the age of 76.
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania– Joseph E. McGettigan III, the Pennsylvania prosecutor who obtained criminal convictions against Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and chemical heir John du Pont, has died at the age of 76.
McGettigan, who lived in the Philadelphia suburb of Media, died Dec. 31, according to the Boyd Horrox Givnish Life Celebration Home in East Norriton.
He was a senior deputy district attorney when he served as lead prosecutor in Sandusky’s trial on child molestation charges in 2012. Concluding argumentMcGettigan showed jurors photos of eight of Sandusky’s victims as children, all of whom posed.
“He molested, abused and hurt these children horribly,” McGettigan said. “He knows he did it, and you know he did it. You find him guilty of everything.” Sandusky was convicted of 45 of the 48 counts.
McGettigan was an assistant district attorney in Delaware County when he prosecuted DuPont, who was found Guilty of third degree murder but mentally ill In the death of Olympic gold medal-winning freestyle wrestler David Schultz at DuPont’s lavish estate outside Philadelphia in 1996. Schultz came to live and train at a state-of-the-art training center that DuPont built on his property.
DuPont 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 a prosecutor, which also included a stint in Philadelphia, often involved murder and child molestation cases. Most recently, he was an attorney in private practice, including work on behalf of crime victims.
Survivors include his wife, Gay Warren; his mother, Ruth L. McGettigan; And six siblings.