Judge declares mistrial in Roger Clemens case

Prosecutors in perjury trial of baseball pitcher violate order barring certain information from being given to jury A Washington judge has declared a mistrial in the perjury trial of baseball pitcher Roger Clemens after prosecutors violated an order that barred certain information from being given to the jury. Judge Reggie Walton was furious at prosecutor Steven Durham for introducing evidence that appeared to bolster the credibility of a future witness, Clemens’s former New York Yankees team-mate Andy Pettitte, and referred to Pettitte’s wife, Laura. “A first-year law student would know that you can’t bolster the credibility of one witness with clearly inadmissible evidence,” Walton said to Durham. “I don’t see how I un-ring the bell.” The mistrial was a major setback for the US government, which spent a year preparing the case. Four days were spent selecting a jury. Clemens, one of only four pitchers to strike out more than 4,000 batters, is facing charges that he lied to the House of Representatives committee on oversight and government reform when he denied taking steroids and human growth hormones between 1998 and 2001. The one-time Hall of Fame contender has denied taking drugs or lying to Congress. Walton said the parties would now have to discuss whether retrying Clemens, 48, would violate the constitutional protection against double jeopardy, which protects an individual from being tried twice for the same offences. A hearing on the double-jeopardy issue will be on 2 Sept – but no new possible trial date was set. In admonishing the prosecutor, Walton said Durham had violated his order during his opening statement as well. The judge also said that defence lawyers should have raised objections immediately when the information was played. The video showed Democratic representative Elijah Cummings making references during the 2008 hearing about Pettitte, who admitted to using steroids, and conversations Pettitte said he had with his wife about Clemens talking about using human growth hormones. Clemens has said that Pettitte, once a close friend, had misremembered and misheard the conversation which had been relayed to his wife Laura. Walton had previously excluded any initial references to Laura Pettitte. Clemens pitched for four teams during his 24-year career in baseball, including the Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros.He won the Cy Young Award, which each year honours the best pitcher in each league, seven times. US sport United States guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 14, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.