Jurors In Original Clemens Case Thought Retrial Would Be A Waste Of Taxpayer Money

So says U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton in court transcripts recently made public. While at a company picnic last September, Walton made an off-the-cuff remark to a former colleague's spouse—also an attorney. The spouse said something to the effect of "Looks like you have to retry the Roger Clemens case" and Walton responded "Well, government counsel may want to talk to the jury."

Walton later brought in counsel for both parties to his chambers and informed them of this conversation. The transcript was filed and made public in the clerk's office in January, but did not show up in the electronic file until earlier this month because of a standard 90 day waiting period before electronic records become public. According to the Associated Press it reads in part:

"The reason I wanted to do this in chambers and not do this in the courtroom is because I think what I'm going to say now would create a tremendous amount of publicity, which I don't think this case needs, and that is, some of the jurors had said that they felt it was a waste of taxpayers' money at a time when we have significant fiscal problems in our country to prosecute this case again because they felt that Congress has all of these other issues on their plate, they can't seem to solve them, so why are we spending money prosecuting this case."

You know, those jurors make a lot of sense. Lying under oath is never good—whether in court or in front of Congress, and ensuring that individuals tell the truth is the very foundation of any justice system and normally, I cringe at the "we're wasting money" notion, but this is different. This is embarrassing—prosecutors had their shot at Clemens and absolutely blew it by presenting jurors with evidence previously deemed inadmissible, forcing Judge Walton to declare a mistrial. Not to mention this is a perjury case about whether or not a fucking baseball player lied to Congress about taking steroids.

So, it's hard not to agree with your fellow citizen jurors when they say this is stupid and a waste of money. Not many would argue otherwise, but I can think of one—is it possible that Jeff Novitzky might actually be peerless?

Some jurors questioned Clemens case, judge says [AP]