Video: First day of jury selection underway for Sandusky trial

>>> right now the first day of jury selection is under way in the sex abuse case of former penn state coach jerry sandusky . three jurors have been selected. sandusky arrived at the courthouse with his attorney to face 52 counts of alleged abuse against 10 boys over 15 years. in an emotional turn, a pennsylvania judge has ruled eight names of sandusky 's alleged victims will be made public during the trial. nbc's michael isikoff joins me from bellefonte, pennsylvania . so the jurors that are selected, one woman, a middle aged woman, she said she had penn state football season tickets. another person a 24-year-old man. we're learning a little about these three people already selected.

>> reporter: right. the most interesting development is that sandusky himself is playing an active role in jury selection . at one point his lawyer, joe amendola, moved to strike one of these potential jurors on the grounds that she had ties to one of the witnesses in this case, mike mcqueary . apparently the woman's husband was a doctor who was in the same physician's group as mike mcqueary 's father. amendola said that was too close. he wanted to strike it, and san ducky overruled his lawyer saying, let it go, i think she would be fair. it's a pretty good indication that jerry sandusky plans to play a very active role in this case.

>> another person selected, a mother of two who works in retail, but, michael, a lot of people are talking about the judge a's -- judge's decision to include the name of these alleged victims. why did the judge make that decision?

>> reporter: well, first of all, the defense lawyers had made a somewhat novel motion on the eve of trial saying that -- offering their clients to be identified by pseudonyms, not their real names, arguing they would suffer severe embarrassment and humiliation if they had to reveal themselves as the victims, alleged victims, of child sex abuse , and the judge shot that down saying, look, no witness who is the victim of a crime wants -- looks forward to having to testify in open court and subject themselves to cross-examination, but this is something we ask every citizen to do. it's their civic duty and motion denied. the defense -- the lawyers for those victims didn't take well to this. many of them were very upset about it, but they say it's not going to change the basic position of their victims, of their clients, that they are going to testify in this case.

>> michael isikoff live for us in pennsylvania this hour. thank you.

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