Roger Clemens Perjury Trial: Former Pitcher Not Guilty

Okay, so National Public Radio’s Nina Totenberg isn’t exactly an authority on sports.

But when Nina Totenberg speaks, millions of people listen. Tuesday morning, she reported on the resolution of the Rogers Clemens trial and concluded with this: “For Clemens, the verdict was as close to exoneration as a public figure can get in a case like this, and it will likely mean that the pitching star known as “the Rocket” will one day be admitted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.”

... by Taiwan’s NMA-TV. (Complete with exploding prosecutors!)↵↵

But here’s what you will care about: the bombardment of Roger Clemens articles you’re about to endure. You don’t have to read a single one. You’ll see the headlines in your Twitter feed. You’ll see the headlines on your Facebook timeline. You’ll see them on the sites you frequent, and they’ll be from writers you care about. You can choose not to decide, but -- check this shit out -- you’ll still have made a choice. Which is to say, you’re not paying attention. But you can’t help paying attention.

You’ll read the conciliatory:

Former major league pitcher Roger Clemens was found not guilty Monday on all charges of lying to Congress in 2008, the latest blow to the government’s prosecution of athletes for allegedly using performance-enhancing substances.

Jurors had resumed deliberations Monday morning after a four-day break.Clemens, who won 354 games in the major leagues and was seemingly headed to a Hall of Fame induction, perhaps as early as next year, instead found himself on trial in federal court on perjury charges for allegedly lying about his use of illegal steroids or human-growth hormones.

This year’s trial was actually the second such event; a mistrial was declared last year because of supposed mistakes prosecutors made in presenting their case.

The prosecution painted a picture of a Roger Clemens who knew exactly what he was doing when he told members of Congress in 2008 that he never used steroids or human-growth hormone.

From MLB.com:

Here’s what I want to know ... Who’s the genius who was doing the original expecting? Because that dude was way, way off.

Maybe that same guy can estimate how much money our government’s going to spend on this trial. Once we’ve got that figure, we can add 50 percent and we’ll probably have a good idea.

That’s the sort of questioning that Cashman underwent for almost five hours, not including a break for lunch.

Pettitte’s Wednesday testimony, under cross-examination from defense attorney Mike Attanasio, could be damaging to the prosecution’s case:

When Attanasio asked Pettitte if he might have misunderstood Clemens in that conversation, Pettitte responded, “I could have.”

And, in the moment of the morning, Attanasio asked Pettitte whether it was “50-50” that Pettitte correctly understood his conversation from over 12 years ago.

“I’d say that’s fair,” Pettitte said.

In the government’s redirect questioning, U.S. Assistant Attorney Steven Durham asked Pettitte whether he remembered other details of that day’s conversation, and Pettitte said he hadn’t.Clemens’ long-standing claim is that Pettitte “misremembered” the conversations the two of them supposedly had on this issue. This testimony could bolster Clemens’ claim.

In testimony on Tuesday, Pettitte told jurors that Clemens had spoken to him about drug use.

“Clemens mentioned that he had taken human growth hormone, it could help with recovery and that’s all I really remember about the conversation,” he testified.

Under questioning by prosecutor Steven Durham, Pettitte said the conversation occurred during a workout in 1999 with McNamee at Clemens’ home in Houston. Pettitte, who gave brief answers, said he had not heard of human growth hormone prior to that conversation. He said he later brought the subject up with their trainer, possibly the same day.

Now go watch some baseball highlights or something. Writing and thinking about legal proceedings is no fun for a sports fan, or sportswriter.

Pettitte is expected to say that he used HGH and that he had conversations with Clemens about HGH, but the judge ruled that Pettitte can’t identify McNamee as a supplier because the jury might try to connect the dots and conclude that McNamee must have also supplied Clemens -- a case of “classic guilt by association,” one of Clemens’ lawyers said.You might know Pettitte as a minor-league prospect, but it turns out he was pretty chummy back in the day. From Jon Heyman:

Heyman then goes on to use “basically honorable” as a modifier for “Pettitte”, which reminds me of the toast my father-in-law gave at my wedding. I’m still not sure if it’s offensive or refreshing to read such a positive description of an admitted HGH user.

Nine months after Judge Reggie Walton declared a mistrial in U.S. v. Clemens, court is back in session. Jury selection begins Monday, April 16 in a trial that is expected to last between four and six weeks. Opening statements are expected by the end of the week, with witness testimony tentatively beginning April 23 or 24.

Clemens’ defense team argued the mistake was egregious and and intentional, and thus should not allow for a re-trial. Although Judge Walton scolded the prosecution for a mistake few first law students make, he did acknowledge it could still be an unintentional mistake, and thus allowed for a re-trial.