Sept. 8 (UPI) — Convicted child molester and former assistant coach for Penn State Jerry Sandusky withdrew his petition for a new trial Tuesday morning, saying he would seek federal relief.

Sandusky had petitioned the court for a new trial last year after a victim, Ryan Rittmeyer, recanted his testimony. The judge didn’t accept most of his team’s arguments, but did allow an evidentiary hearing, which was scheduled for Tuesday.

On Tuesday, a judge in Centre County, Penn., accepted the withdrawal of the petition.

Sandusky is hoping to get a faster result with a federal appeal.

“I need to get there as fast as possible. I’m 82 years old. I’m innocent. I intend to be alive when the truth is heard,” Sandusky said in an audio statement from prison shared with CNN last week.

It’s unlikely that Sandusky will be able to get federal relief because the petition wasn’t exhausted in the state court. He plans to fight in federal court based on other issues that were unsuccessful in state appeals.

“Over the years, I have brought 15 serious issues before Pennsylvania’s courts, each one showing I deserve a new trial. Everyone was swatted down,” Sandusky said in the recorded statement. “I have no faith this one would be treated differently, no matter how compelling the evidence 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 was convicted in 2012 of 45 counts of child sexual abuse against 10 boys over a 15-year span. The court sentenced him to 30 years to 60 years in prison. Of the 45 counts, six were from Rittmeyer. He testified that Sandusky abused him on several occasions in 1998 and 1999.

In 2011, Penn State University fired head football coach Joe Paterno over the scandal.

Sandusky’s attorney Jerry Russo told reporters that he was eager to explore claims in federal court including that prosecutors didn’t provide his team with exculpatory evidence.

He described the decision to pull Rittmeyer’s recantation as “strategy.”

“The courts disfavor recantation testimony,” Russo said, pointing to Pennsylvania case law precedents, ESPN reported. “There’s no purpose litigating it here in state court.”

“If you believe Jerry Sandusky was fairly treated by the court,” Russo said, “then you’re not going to hear what I have to say.”

“Read the record, and you will understand why I believe he’s innocent,” Russo told ESPN. “That’s why I took this case.”