Joseph McGettigan, prosecutor in Jerry Sandusky and John du Pont cases, dies at 76

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.