Michigan Supreme Court has rejected a final appeal from sports doctor Larry Nassar, who was sentenced to decades in prison for sexually assaulting gymnasts including Olympic medallists.
The court declined to take the case. Lawyers for Nassar said he was treated unfairly in 2018 and deserved a new hearing, based on remarks by a judge who called him a “monster” who would “wither” in prison like the wicked witch in The Wizard Of Oz.
“I just signed your death warrant,” Ingham County Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said of Nassar’s 40-year sentence.
More than 150 victims spoke or submitted statements during an extraordinary seven-day hearing in Judge Aquilina’s court.
He worked at Michigan State University and at Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics, travelling the world with the elites of the sport.
“Our constitution does not allow for cruel and unusual punishment,” the judge said. “If it did, I have to say I might allow what he did to all of these beautiful souls – these young women in their childhood – I would allow someone or many people to do to him what he did to others.”
Nassar subsequently received another 40-year sentence in a separate case in a neighbouring county.
He is in federal prison for child pornography crimes in a different case that grew out of the same investigation. The sentences effectively mean Nassar, 58, will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
He was arrested by Michigan State University police in 2016, more than a year later.
Michigan State, which was accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay 500 million dollars to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted by him.
USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a 380 million dollar settlement.
