More victim impact statements if Larry Nassar gets another Ingham County sentencing
Larry Nassar and his attorneys have requested a new sentencing hearing and a new judge for that sentencing hearing in Ingham County, Michigan after the 54-year-old disgraced former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University physician was reportedly physically assaulted in prison in May.
Nassar was physically assaulted just hours after being released to the general population at United States Penitentiary, Tucson in Tucson, Arizona. He had spent a few months in the prison before being released to its general population.
United States Penitentiary, Tucson is the prison at which Nassar is serving the 60-year federal prison sentence that he was issued on three child pornography charges this past December by U.S. District Judge Janet Neff.
However, the focus of the complaints of Nassar and his attorneys is the Ingham County sentencing hearing, a seven-day sentencing hearing that resulted in Judge Rosemarie Aquilina issued him a state prison sentence for between 40 and 175 years after a total of 169 victim impact statements were delivered in front of Nassar himself back in January.
According to the Lansing State Journal, Nassar's attorneys claim that he was attacked in prison as a result of Judge Aquilina's "efforts to demonize Dr. Nassar in front of the entire world."
Here is what Nassar's attorneys wrote, according to the Lansing State Journal.
"Judge Aquilina made numerous statements throughout the proceedings indicating that she had already decided to impose the maximum allowed by the sentence agreement even before the sentencing hearing began. Thus, from the defendant's perspective the sentencing hearing was just a ritual.
"The judge herself openly lamented that she could not impose cruel and unusual punishment upon the defendant, indicated her expectation that he would be harmed in prison, without condemning it, and finally proclaimed, with apparent relish, that she was signing his 'death warrant.'"
They added the following.
"If resentencing is ordered, it should be with a different judge. Judge Aquilina can be reasonably be expected to have substantial difficulty in putting out of her mind previously-expressed views or findings determined to be erroneous."
However, if Nassar gets a new sentencing hearing and a new judge in Ingham County, those who he sexually assaulted may be asked to deliver their victim impact statements again, essentially "re-victimizing" them.
Here is what attorney Mick Grewal, who represents 111 of the people who claim Nassar sexually assaulted them, had to say about the matter, according to ESPN.
"For a narcissistic, convicted pedophile to put these women through this again is horrible...They will come and they will fight. They are the voices of change."
Nassar's lawyers also reportedly plan to file pleadings in Eaton County, Michigan in the near future. In February, Nassar was sentenced to between 40 and 125 years more years in state prison on three additional sexual assault charges in by Judge Janice Cunningham in Eaton County following a three-day sentencing hearing during which a total of 65 more victim impact statements were delivered in front of him.
Should they have success in doing so, the people who delivered victim impact statements in front of Nassar during that three-day sentencing hearing in Eaton Country may also be asked to do so again, but that likely would not happen in the near future even if it does happen.
More than 300 people, many of whom female gymnasts, have accused Nassar of sexual assault. He sexually assaulted his patients under the guise of medical treatment for more than two decades.
Among those who have accused Nassar of sexual assault are Olympic champion gymnasts Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber.