Roger Clemens Gets Not Guilty Verdict at Trial

By KC Downey in Featured, MLB, Red Sox, Top Story ⋅ June 18, 2012 at 9:37pm ⋅ Post a comment

Roger Clemens (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

In what may be the final chapter of the famed Steroid Era in Major League Baseball, former Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens was found not guilty on six counts Monday in his perjury trial.

The jury returned their verdict after just 10 hours of deliberation. The 49-year-old Clemens was accused of perjury, making false statements and obstructing Congress after he made his nationally televised appearance in February 2008.

The government spent more than four years and presumably millions of dollars building the case against Clemens, but in the end, it was all for naught.

Defense attorneys hammered the prosecution’s star witness Brian McNamee, the former trainer of Clemens, throughout the 10-week trial, taking shots at his credibility and his character.

We covered the Mitchell Report and later The Rocket’s appearance in front of Congress pretty extensively, and even with this acquittal, it’s pretty difficult to honestly believe Clemens never used performance enhancing drugs.

His dramatic statistical improvement on the mound in his late 30′s and early 40′s after a few years of mediocrity speaks for itself. But, what’s even more astounding is that prosecutors presented actual DNA EVIDENCE LINKING CLEMENS TO STEROIDS!

But, in this justice system, it’s not the jury’s job to determine whether they think Clemens did steroids. It’s their job to determine whether they think the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Clemens lied under oath while in front of Congress.

Do you think the jury got it right?