As someone who was in the Congressional hearing room where Roger Clemens – in my opinion – clearly and convincingly perjured himself, I can also state with certainty that, with the make-up of the jury pool in his perjury case that resulted in a mis-trial last week, that was a great result for the prosecution. Looking at some of the lugnuts that got that jury, the prosecution might never have had a chance.
As a former trial attorney and seasoned commentator on legal cases from the local level to the Supreme Court of the United States, I can tell you that one adage still holds true: prosecutors and defendants companies/corporations in personal injury cases want a jury full of Prussian bankers. Criminal defendants and personal injury plaintiffs want a jury full of beer swilling Joe Sixpacks.
Or as the old joke goes, “What is a jury? It’s the stupidity of one person multiplied by twelve.”
All it takes is one person – one – who, for whatever reason, won’t be swayed and a criminal swaggers out of court with a lascivious leer and disingenuous speech about vindication.
So when I read that the jury impaneled to hear Roger Clemens’s perjury trial consisted of a yoga instructor who is opposed to the War on Drugs and a young woman who thought quarterback Michael Vick was “done wrong” when he was sent to prison on dogfighting charges, my heart went right into my throat. That’s just what Clemens needed, an idiot who can’t even use proper grammar when speaking English and who is obviously a star-struck jock-sniffer. If she thought Vick was “done wrong” how could she possibly understand how HGH works microscopically to improve performance? If a yoga instructor is opposed to the War on Drugs, can he really put that aside to determine whether or not on the facts presented Clemens lied to Congress about using PEDs?
A mis-trial was the biggest break the prosecution could have had – they probably would have lost that first trial at jury selection, the most critical part of the process.
Take a look at the Barry Bonds trial – a young woman named “Nyeisha” refused to find credible a certain witness every other member of the jury found particularly credible. They had to pull teeth just to get her to convict on any count. Otherwise, Bonds would have skated on every charge. As it is, he’s convicted on the lightest charge: obstruction of justice, the mildest charge of all. She was also the lone holdout in the 11-1 split on more serious charges of perjury. Granted the jury slpit 9-3 and 8-4 on two other charges, but from what other jurors are saying about her in the press, she wasn’t particularly keen on finding Bonds guilty of anything, despite what the evidence may have shown too the contrary.
Make no mistake – the evidence against Clemens is a cast iron lock. Now they just have to get a jury willing to do its civic duty and judge him on the evidence presented, not make decisions based on personal preconceptions, which is what no doubt would have happened with a lugnut who thought Michael Vick was “done wrong” on dogfighting charges.
So Clemens cries in his papers that he was done wrong. His words ring as hollow as his shouting at Congress that “I was doin’ y’all a favor” when he only produced his nanny after he flew the nanny form her home to his lawyers for grilling first.
That was the first thing she told an angry Congress who looked at Clemens much like a hawk eyes a worm. Clemens deserves to burn in this. Let’s hope the next jury has the courage to do the right thing, but you know what? With the way ESPN and the entertainment industry have dumbed-down America? There is a substantial risk that he might not – and that would be the greatest injustice to the integrity of all sports ever committed since the Black Sox scandal.
