The Sleeping Clemens Jurors Prove A Point
By: Ryan Wooley
For the second time during the Roger Clemens perjury trail, I find myself laughing inside because a juror has fallen asleep and been dismissed from the case.
Don't get me wrong though, I'm not laughing because the two jurors couldn't stay awake, as I do believe in our civic duty and believe everyone should treat the opportunity with respect. But I am laughing because the action of falling asleep is the perfect microcosm of the trial, as it's a joke that it's even going on in the first place.
Do you remember the first trial? If not, don't feel bad because as soon as it started, it was over. It took four years from the point of Clemens being named in the Mitchell report for the actual trial to get underway in 2011, but ended just two days later because the prosecution showed evidence that had previously been ruled out.
After the mistrial, a hearing was held to determine whether or not Clemens should be retried, and because of that, I'm left wondering why the decision was made for a second trial to begin with.
Does anyone really care if Clemens took steroids? Are you truly going to look at him differently or think any less of his personal accolades? I won't and could care less if he did. Many athletes over the years have juiced up and either set or broke records because of it. Baseball, like other sports, went through a dark time because of performance enhancing drugs, but has since moved forward. So why is the Government wasting more taxpayer's money to try and prove Clemens lied under oath? So they can thump their chest and prove a point? And if it was such an open and shut case with their star witness Brian McNamee and his physical evidence, why did the prosecution commit an error that even a first year law student would have caught in the first trial?
I always find it comical that most of the people that claim they will never look at Clemens or his accomplishments the same are the same people that will sit and cheer for Andy Pettite, Alex Rodriguez or any other athlete in any league that openly admitted they used performance enhancing drugs. In my mind, you can't have it both ways. You either despise those that cheated or you don't. You can't sit there and applaud those that cheated because they admitted it and asked for forgiveness, yet condemn those that allegedly cheated and are yet to be found guilty—and that is exactly what is going on with Clemens.
As of now, Roger Clemens is yet to be found guilty and is innocent until proven guilty. The Federal prosecutors couldn't prove it in the first trial and who knows if they will here in the second. But with not one, but two jurors now falling asleep during this trail, I think it speaks volumes that the general public could care less if Clemens truly used PED's and that the Federal Government should focus on something more pertinent than this witch hunt.
Follow Ryan Wooley on Twitter: @WooleyMammoth85
