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Roger Clemens Found Not Guilty On All Counts, Trial Mercifully Over

He’s not sitting in George’s box, but it is a big day for Roger Clemens: he was just found not guilty on all counts in his perjury trial. There were six counts in all: one of obstruction of Congress, three of making false statements, and two of perjury.

While it’s obviously great news for Clemens, though, it’s also great news for the rest of us: because now we never have to hear about the stupid, stupid Roger Clemens trial again. It started last summer, and it was boring then. Unfortunately, at that time it ended in a mistrial, so it had to start all over – and be just as stupid as ever, if not more so – all over again.

Why was it all so stupid? Well, in addition to the inanity of the details described at the previous link, there’s the not-insignificant consideration that the entire operation was a waste of everyone’s time and money to begin with. Were steroids a big problem for baseball? Yes. Is a trial like this an indication that the fuss over the problem has outstripped the magnitude of the problem itself? Also yes. Was there really no better use for the resources devoted to this federal trial?

So regardless of any of the facts of the case, the fact that this trial never should have existed in the first place makes me happy Clemens got off. A conviction would have equaled vindication for federal prosecutors. The result that came in this afternoon was an across-the-board loss… and has to make it less likely that more cases like this come along. I didn’t care about this trial. I didn’t know anyone who cared about this trial. The details were so boring that the jurors could barely bring themselves to care about this trial. Hopefully today’s verdict signals we won’t be forced to care about another of these trials anytime soon.