Government F*cks Up in Roger Clemens trial, judge declares mistrial

[Millard]

Government F*cks Up in Roger Clemens trial, judge declares mistrial after feds introduce inadmissible evidence to the jury but not before Judge Walton chastises them for wasting taxpayer money after making a mistake even a first year law student would have known to avoid

 

[Millard]

Government F*cks Up in Roger Clemens trial, judge declares mistrial after feds introduce inadmissible evidence to the jury but not before Judge Walton chastises them for wasting taxpayer money after making a mistake even a first year law student would have known to avoid

Federal prosecutors should have more respect for the law and the judge. The government is not allowed to break the rules either:

Walton was angered that in the video prosecutors showed the jury, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., referred to Pettitte's conversation with his wife.

"I think that a first-year law student would know that you can't bolster the credibility of one witness with clearly inadmissible evidence," Walton said.

He said it was the second time that prosecutors had gone against his orders -- the other being an incident that happened during opening arguments Wednesday when assistant U.S. attorney Steven Durham said that Pettite and two other of Clemens' New York teammates, Chuck Knoblauch and Mike Stanton, had used human growth hormone.

Walton said in pre-trial hearings that such testimony could lead jurors to consider Clemens guilty by association. Clemens' defense attorney objected when Durham made the statement and Walton told jurors to disregard Durham's comments about other players.

There was no objection from Clemens' team during the Laura Pettitte reference, but the judge stopped the proceedings, called attorneys up to the bench and spoke to them privately for several minutes. Hardin pointed out during that time, the video remained frozen on the screen in front of jurors with a transcript of what was being said on the bottom.

Cummings had been quoting from Laura Pettitte's affidavit to the committee. "I, Laura Pettitte, do depose and state, in 1999 or 2000, Andy told me had a conversation wth Roger Clemens in which Roger admitted to him using human growth hormones," the text on the screen read.

The judge eventually told the jurors to leave while he discussed the issue with attorneys in open court.

"Government counsel should have been more cautious," Walton said, raising his voice and noting that the case has already cost a lot of taxpayer money. He then left the courtroom and said he would go consult with a colleague on what to do.

Read more: Roger Clemens trial -- Judge declares mistrial - ESPN

 

[Millard]

Bad, bad government prosecutors... should have listened to the judge.

The prosecution 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.

Judge Walton ruled last week that Laura Pettitte’s testimony would be barred from the trial, unless it was needed for rebuttal evidence when Andy Pettitte was on the stand.

“I’m very troubled by this,” Judge Walton said. “We’ve spent a lot of money to reach this point. Government counsel should have been more cautious about what was presented so we are not in this situation.”

Judge Walton stopped the video while Cummings was speaking on the video, then the lawyers on both sides met at the bench to discuss what had transpired. After the jury was excused, Rusty Hardin, Clemens’s lead lawyer, said he was disturbed that the paused video remained on the screen for the jury to see while the lawyers spoke.

“We’re going to have to move for a mistrial,” he said, adding that “the entire time we were at the bench, Cummings’s statement was on the screen for the jury to look at.”

The statement was: “Let me read to you what his wife said in her affidavit. I, Laura Pettitte, do depose and state, in 1999 or 2000, Andy told me he had a conversation with Roger Clemens in which Roger admitted to him using human growth hormones.”

After the judge ruled that Laura Pettitte’s testimony was inadmissible, the government should have taken care to redact that part of the video, Judge Walton said. He also said the defense should have objected as soon as the images were put on the screen.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/sports/baseball/clemens-judge-declares-mistrial.html

 

[BBC3]

Nothing happens by concidence in this arena. This is called the power of being and AMERICAN HERO and LEGEND. Long live the Rocket...!

The hippocracy of these Roman Times is worse than ANY in history. Let the gladiators entertain, but starve them first, call THEM criminals, and sit back and feel good about ourselves for doing the "right thing"..

Its not only hipocracy, but mental retardation. At least in Rome, any interference would only be designed to heighten the entertainment. Say, tie a gladiators hand behind his back because he has slayed so many lions it has become boring. Here we would prefer to tie both hands behind ALL gladiators backs, and watch them bounce around off each other. What does that say about the audience??

But I guess the world has always required Martyrs...