The retrial of Roger Clemens officially starts on Monday. Many people feel that the government’s pursuit of the Major League Baseball pitcher is nothing more than a steroid witch-hunt and a colossal waste of taxpayer money. After the first mistrial, United States District Judge Reggie Walton suggested that government counsel may want to reconsider retrying Clemens. Many of the jurors in the first trial apparently shared the sentiment that the trial was a waste of money. The court documents that recorded Walton’s comments have been made public for the first time this month.
“[S]ome of the jurors had said that they felt it was a waste of taxpayers’ money at a time when we have significant fiscal problems in our country to prosecute this case again because they felt that Congress has all of these other issues on their plate, they can’t seem to solve them, so why are we spending money prosecuting this case,” Judge Walton told the prosecution in closed chambers on September 2, 2011 shortly after he declared a mistrial.
Walton wanted to entire his comments on the record to see if either the government or the defense wanted to raise an issue over it. However, the government was not deterred in pursuing another trial of Clemens.
The waste of taxpayer money on the steroid witch hunt seems to be an issue that troubles Judge Walton. He has raised the issue on more than one occasion. He first made his feelings known at the first trial when he chastised the government for spending so much money only to inexcusably allow it to end in a mistrial.
“I’m very troubled by this,” Judge Walton said. “We’ve spent a lot of money to reach this point. Government counsel should have been more cautious about what was presented so we are not in this situation.”
The federal government has made it clear that it doesn’t want the jury to hear about the ridiculous amount of money spent on the steroid investigation involving the seven-time Cy Young Award winner. The Clemens investigation is thought to have cost taxpayers several million dollars. They are clearly concerned that jurors may become biased against a government that needlessly wastes money on frivolous pursuits of celebrity athletes. The possibility exists that it could also “foster confusion and sympathy” for Clemens.
The former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher was implicated in the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in the Mitchell Report. While under oath before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in February 2008, Clemens denied having use steroids or human growth hormone (hGH). The government concluded that Clemens was lying about his personal use of steroids. He was charged with several counts of obstructing a congressional investigations, making false statements and perjury.
If Roger Clemens is convicted for lying about his use of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (hGH), he faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. However, if found guilty, he would most likely be sentenced to a maximum of 15 to 21 months if under federal sentencing guidelines.
Source:
Associated Press. (April 14, 2012). Judge: Some against Clemens retrial. Retrieved from http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7813370/judge-says-some-jurors-see-roger-clemens-retrial-waste-money
