U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton declared a mistrial in Roger Clemens’s perjury trial yesterday. Judge Walton stopped the trial after prosecutors showed jurors evidence that he had ruled inadmissible: videotaped evidence that a teammate told his wife Clemens confessed to using a drug.
Clemens was accused of steroid use in Baseball’s infamous Mitchell Report in December 2007. Then in August 2010, he was indicted for making false statements to congress on his use of performance enhancing drugs.
His perjury trial began on July 6, 2011 and on July 14, the judge declared a mistrial telling the prosecutors about their mistake that a “first year law student” would have known to avoid.
Clemens is not in the clear yet, but when his criminal trial was stopped after the government screwed up on only second day, that is a good start.
Judge Walton scheduled a hearing on September 2, to determine whether there will be a new trial.
He said he could not let Clemens face time in prison on such “extremely prejudicial evidence.
“Mr. Clemens has to get a fair trial,” Walton said. “In my view, he can’t get it now.”
