Big Win For Roger Clemens

[JoltinJoe]

The judge in the Roger Clemens trial has declared a mistrial due to the prosecution's display of inadmissible evidence to the jury. The judge determined that he did not believe there was any curative instruction he could have given the jury to prevent the jury from considering the improper evidence.

Moreover, because the mistrial resulted from prosecutorial error or misconduct, there is a compelling argument that Clemens cannot be tried again due to double jeopardy concerns.

Will link a story ASAP.

[93henfan]

No biggie. It doesn't seem like any of the high profile/high dollar cheaters in any of the sports have to pay for their crimes these days.

Marion Jones seems to have taken the sacrificial hit for everyone else from that era.

And didn't I recently read that Victor Conti has already set up shop again?

[TheDancinMonarch]

Man, them gub'mint lawyers shure is gud! Maybe they can be put in charge of my health care.

[89Hen]

Why are we wasting time and money on this?

[Grizalltheway]

The judge in the Roger Clemens trial has declared a mistrial due to the prosecution's display of inadmissible evidence to the jury. The judge determined that he did not believe there was any curative instruction he could have given the jury to prevent the jury from considering the improper evidence.

Moreover, because the mistrial resulted from prosecutorial error or misconduct, there is a compelling argument that Clemens cannot be tried again due to double jeopardy concerns.

Will link a story ASAP.

Fill me in on this, are we talking about the needles with his DNA on them?

[Grizalltheway]

Man, them gub'mint lawyers shure is gud! Maybe they can be put in charge of my health care.

Shocker, no mention of the private ambulance chasers doing their best to drive up health care costs.

[JoltinJoe]

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la ... 4711.story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think there is a a decent argument here that Clemens should not be tried again.

The prosecution in this case knows that it has a witness lacking in credibility in McNamee. Their best hope for a conviction is rely on the far more credible testimony of Andy Pettitte whose testimony was expected to corroborate McNamee's testimony that Clemens used HGH.

Pettitte testified before congress that, in 1999, Clemens told him that he had used HGH. Pettitte further testified that he spoke to Clemens again in 2005 about that conversation, at which time Clemens told Pettite that he did not remember the conversation correctly. Pettitte testified that Clemens claimed in 2005 that he had told Pettitte that Clemens' wife had used HGH during that earlier conversation in 1999.

The prosecutors wanted to call Laura Pettitte for the purposes of establishing that shortly after the 1999 conversation, Pettitte had told his wife about his conversation and that Pettitte had told her at that time that Clemens had admitted to using HGH. This was intended to rebut the claim that Pettitte "misremembered" the conversation because he had told his wife about the discussion shortly after it happened. The judge ruled (correctly) that Laura Pettitte's testimony was inadmissible hearsay.

So during the trial, the prosecution showed the jury a video of Clemens' appearance before congress, during which one of the congressmen challenged Clemens about his version of the conversation, mentioning that Laura Pettitte remembered her husband telling her about the 1999 conversation shortly after it happened. This brought a motion for a mistrial, with Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, arguing that this tactic was a circumvention of the Court's ruling excluding Laura Pettitte's testimony. The motion was granted.

I suspect Hardin will now argue that the prosecutor's misconduct/mistake was done with the intent to provide corroborative support for Pettitte's recollection of the 1999 conversation; constitutes an intentional circumvention of the court's prior ruling; and effectively forced the defense to seek a mistrial. If he succeeds on those points, the court is likely to determine that double jeopardy attaches and Clemens cannot be tried again.

[bluehenbillk]

Big win? Big win that Clemens either delays or doesn't goto jail for perjury or lying to Congress.

He's already lost in the court of public opinion - the overwhelming majority of baseball fans and the general public knows that these guys juiced & cheated & lied.

Perosnally, I'd rather the government not re-try the case & just move on. At most Clemens would have seen 6-12 months in a country club minimum security setting anyway. He's already lost forever the two things that probably mean most to him: his credibility & his shot at the HOF. Add him to the list of the "lost generation" - so many guys that would've/should've/could've been HOF's but now won't even come close to getting put in.

[JoltinJoe]

Big win? Big win that Clemens either delays or doesn't goto jail for perjury or lying to Congress.

He's already lost in the court of public opinion - the overwhelming majority of baseball fans and the general public knows that these guys juiced & cheated & lied.

Perosnally, I'd rather the government not re-try the case & just move on. At most Clemens would have seen 6-12 months in a country club minimum security setting anyway. He's already lost forever the two things that probably mean most to him: his credibility & his shot at the HOF. Add him to the list of the "lost generation" - so many guys that would've/should've/could've been HOF's but now won't even come close to getting put in.

I think avoiding jail and gaining the argument that he was a victim of prosecutorial conduct was the biggest win left for him. I agree he's lost the battle for the public's opinion.

[TheDancinMonarch]

Man, them gub'mint lawyers shure is gud! Maybe they can be put in charge of my health care.

Shocker, no mention of the private ambulance chasers doing their best to drive up health care costs.

Non sequitur.

[MrTitleist]

You know what's funny... didn't Roger's wife go to jail for some time because of this? Now the Rocket's going to get off without jail time.

[Grizalltheway]

Shocker, no mention of the private ambulance chasers doing their best to drive up health care costs.

Non sequitur.

You're the one who brought up health care, asshat.

[TheDancinMonarch]

Non sequitur.

You're the one who brought up health care, asshat.

It was government genius to which I was referring. I just extended to a more important area than prosecuting a jock.

[Ivytalk]

Let's see if it costs Roger a place in The Hall.