Jury Selection Set to Begin in Second Clemens Trial

WASHINGTON—Jury selection is slated to begin today in the retrial of former Red Sox ace Roger Clemens. 

The seven-time CY Young Award winner is back in court nine months after the government failed to prove he lied to Congress when he denied using performance enhancing drugs in 2008, according to The Associated Press.

Last July, US District Judge Reggie Walton declared a mistrial after only two witnesses had been called stating that prosecutors had made a mistake that even a “first-year law student wouldn’t make.”

The prosecutors slipped up by introducing evidence previously banned by Judge Walton.

The second trial is expected to last four to six weeks, and federal sentencing guidelines indicate Clemens would receive up to 15 months to 21 months in prison if found guilty.

The government owes its second bite at the apple largely to the testimony of Clemens’ former trainer, Brian McNamee, who told a House committee four years ago that he routinely injected the only pitcher to ever record multiple 20-strikeout games with steroids and human growth hormone.

According to USA Today, it is thought prosecutors will introduce potentially damning physical evidence in the form of medical waste—including soiled gauze and used syringes tainted with anabolic steroids—collected by McNamee over 10 years ago following the alleged injections he gave the pitcher.

Clemens has maintained, both before Congress and in the media, that he never used performance enhancing drugs.

Clemens’ defense attorney, Rusty Hardin, promised to challenge the credibility of the government’s star witness, having already posited during the aborted first trial that the trainer may have “created” the tainted needles and bloody swabs in order to damage Clemens.

During Friday’s pre-trial hearing, Hardin told Walton the governmetn has provided the defense with new information that may lead to the tainted medical waste being excluded from the evidence, according to USA Today.

While no one would elaborate on the exact nature of the new information, Hardin said in court the “developments call into serious question” whether the government can prove the materials were properly stored and immune from potential tampering.

“We intend to cross-examine this vigorously,” said Hardin’s co-counsel, attorney Michael Attanasio, in the USA Today report.

Acording to some legal experts, even if the defense succeeds in demonstrating that McNamee harbored some vendetta against Clemens, it is still possible for the prosecution to prevail, based on the potential strength of the physical evidence.

“It makes it harder,” Vermont Law School professor Michael McCann, who specializes in sports law, told USA Today. “But it is still possible.

Walton said jury selection is likely to take three to four days, with opening arguments possibly coming as early as late next week.