Joseph E. McGettigan III, the Pennsylvania prosecutor who secured criminal convictions against Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and chemical heir John du Pont, died Dec. 31 at age 76, according to Boyd Horrox Givnish Life Celebration Home of East Norriton. McGettigan lived in Media, a Philadelphia suburb. No cause of death was reported.

McGettigan’s two most prominent cases — separated by more than a decade — each carried national weight: the Sandusky prosecution exposed serial child sexual abuse inside a flagship university athletic program, while the du Pont trial confronted questions of mental illness and accountability among the ultra-wealthy. Both verdicts relied in substantial part on McGettigan’s courtroom work.

Joseph E. McGettigan III, the Pennsylvania prosecutor whose courtroom work produced landmark convictions against Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and chemical heir John du Pont, died Dec. 31 at age 76, according to the Boyd Horrox Givnish Life Celebration Home of East Norriton funeral home. McGettigan lived in Media, a suburb of Philadelphia.

His two most prominent cases — separated by more than a decade — each drew national attention: the Sandusky prosecution exposed serial child sexual abuse inside a flagship university athletic program, while the du Pont trial confronted questions of mental illness and privilege. Both verdicts relied in substantial part on McGettigan’s courtroom work.

The Sandusky prosecution

McGettigan served as a senior deputy attorney general when he was lead prosecutor at the 2012 trial of Jerry Sandusky on child molestation charges.

During closing argument, McGettigan showed jurors photographs of eight of Sandusky’s victims as children, all of whom had taken the stand during the trial.

“He molested and abused and hurt these children horribly,” McGettigan told the jury. “He knows he did it, and you know he did it. Find him guilty of everything.”

Sandusky was convicted of 45 of 48 counts. He is 81 and currently serving a 30- to 60-year sentence in state prison, according to the Associated Press.

The du Pont case

Earlier in his career, McGettigan was an assistant district attorney in Delaware County when he prosecuted John du Pont, heir to the du Pont chemical fortune, for the 1996 killing of David Schultz, an Olympic gold medal-winning freestyle wrestler.

Schultz had come to live and train at a state-of-the-art wrestling facility du Pont had built on his palatial estate outside Philadelphia. Du Pont shot Schultz on the property.

Du Pont was found guilty of third-degree murder but mentally ill. He died in a Pennsylvania prison in 2010 at age 72.

Career and survivors

McGettigan’s career as a prosecutor also included a stint in Philadelphia and frequently involved murder and child molestation cases, according to the AP. More recently he had worked in private practice, including on behalf of crime victims.

He is survived by his wife, Gay Warren; his mother, Ruth L. McGettigan; and six siblings.