Jerry Sandusky hearing Tuesday to address claim that one accuser recants sexual abuse allegations

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was scheduled to appear in court remotely Tuesday for a hearing on a claim that an accuser wants to recant allegations that Sandusky sexually abused him years ago.

The hearing is part of Sandusky's lawyers' latest bid to secure a new trial.

Sandusky is still fighting his conviction of child sexual abuse 14 years later, speaking in an audio recording from prison last week obtained by KDKA-TV.

"I'm innocent. I intend to be alive when the truth is heard," Sandusky can be heard saying in the recording.

Sandusky, 82, has been serving a decades-long prison sentence since he was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse in 2012, after eight young men testified about what happened to them as boys. He has repeatedly failed to secure a new trial.

The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General has said the supposed recantation is "highly suspect."

The accuser, identified in court documents as R.R., said he was coached extensively by authorities that he could "safely affirm details I did not fully recall," he said in an affidavit filed by Sandusky's attorneys.

R.R., who was 25 years old at trial, testified that when he was 11, Sandusky sexually abused him in the coach's basement in 1998, a transcript shows.  

Sandusky's legal team says R.R.'s allegations were "based on suggestive leading questioning, prosecutorial coercion and influence, confirmatory bias and memory manipulation."

Sandusky, citing other issues denied by the state court, says he doesn't have faith they would order a new trial based on this new evidence and now wants a federal court to order a new trial in state court.

"In federal court, every one of those issues can be heard together by judges who have not already made up their minds about me," Sandusky said in the recording.

During a status hearing on Friday, the judge decided to proceed with Tuesday's hearing, saying in an order that they would question Sandusky's accuser on the record to confirm he understands what it means to withdraw his claim.

KDKA-TV reached out to Sandusky's legal team for comment to explain its reasoning for the withdrawal, but has not heard back.

Sandusky was the defensive coordinator at one of the country's top football programs under Hall of Fame head coach Joe Paterno. The scandal led to Paterno's firing, and the university paid more than $100 million to people who said they were abused by Sandusky.

Authorities said he found and groomed boys at The Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk youth. Sandusky has repeatedly declared his innocence.