Given the monstrous nature of his crimes against vulnerable children, it is regrettable that there is no legal provision for capital punishment to be dispensed to Jerry Sandusky. How many lives may one destroy before being required to sacrifice their own?

Sandusky insidiously made himself an integral part of the lives of the most vulnerable: children who were so starved for attention and affection that they believed his sick and perverted interest in them was something to be treasured.

He got away with victimizing children for so long because he falsely established himself as a humanitarian whose goal was to help children in need, and because he was a kingpin of vast wealth in the untouchable, all-important Penn State football program. As one pitiable victim testified about why he did not come forward, he asked who would believe “kids.”

Defense attorney Joe Amendola said that if Sandusky committed the grave crimes of which he was accused, he would deserve to rot in jail for the rest of his life. Thanks to God, the jury, the courageous young men who testified and to the attorney general and the state police, he will.

Now the prayers of people of goodwill are with the many victims, including any silent sufferers who have not come forward. Their lives will never be fully pieced back together, but they surely have some comfort in knowing that justice has been dispensed to the wicked, calculating man who targeted them.

Oren Spiegler Upper St. Clair