Judge declares mistrial for Roger Clemens.

[Stinky The Clown]

Breaking on MSNBC

[cal04]

1. NY Times link

Judge Declares Mistrial in Roger Clemens Perjury Case
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/sports/baseball/clemens-judge-declares-mistrial.html?_r=1&src=twr

The federal judge presiding over Roger Clemens’s perjury trial declared a mistrial because the prosecution revealed information Thursday that he previously deemed inadmissible.

The United States District Court Judge Reggie Walton abruptly stopped the trial and scolded the prosecution for playing a videotape of the 2008 Congressional hearings on performance-enhancing drug use in baseball. The part of the tape that worried him included comments made by Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, about the credibility of Andy Pettitte, Clemens’s former best friend and teammate, who is expected to be one of the star witnesses for the government.

Pettitte testified that Clemens had admitted to him that he used human growth hormone in 1999 or 2000.

The prosuction also played for the jury a part of the Congressional hearings in which Cummings read an affidavit from Andy Pettitte’s wife, Laura. In the affidavit, she said that her husband had told her about a conversation he had with Clemens about Clemens’s use of human growth hormone.

[PoliticAverse]

2. Damn, a baulk... n/t

[Angry Dragon]

3. Here is a question for you:

How come it is illegal to lie to Congress, but it is not illegal for Congress to lie??


















Seems they think of themselves above any law.............

[Lint Head]

5. Excellent question. This should be a bumper sticker!

[MiniMe]

8. Because their statements are not intended to be factual

[Lone_Star_Dem]

4. I'm assuming this is do to the earlier mentioned prosecutors misconduct?

I'm not sure what the prosecutor was thinking was going to happen with that video, but if that's the reason for this it's not a shock it's ended in a mistrial. You don't disobey and piss off the judge if you want your case to proceed.

[NotThisTime]

9. What happened with the prosecutor?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. Here you go

He messed up and blew the whole thing.

http://blog.chron.com/clemens/2011/07/walton-declares-a-mistrial-in-clemens-case/

http://blog.chron.com/jeromesolomon/2011/07/clemens-mistrial-repeat-after-me-waste-of-time/

[ncrainbowgrrl]

6. already?

[CanSocDem]

7. No surprise.

Nobody wanted this trial in the first place. The culture of professional sports is rotten to the core but no more than all the other myths of corporate society. Why 'pick at a scab' so to speak, when so much is at stake. The same affected indifference to un-indicted war criminals.

Most of us around here know it is all about the money. Myths abound, however about the nobility of competition, the unadulterated athletic purity of the participants, the justice of the rules, and the sanctity of the institution. Ol' Rog could have become the proverbial loose thread...that would unravel the very fabric of corporate culture.

As an anarchist, I'm somewhat disappointed with this....

.