Mistrial Declared On Day 2 Of Clemens's Case
New York Times:
The federal judge presiding over Roger Clemens's perjury trial declared a mistrial Thursday, saying the government allowed the jury to hear inadmissible testimony that prejudiced it against Clemens.
"He is entitled to a fair trial and, in my view, he can't get it now, and that was caused by the government," the judge, Reggie Walton of United States District Court, said.
The prosecutors left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. Judge Walton set a hearing date of Sept. 2 for them to reveal if they plan to retry the case, which was only two days into testimony.
Associated Press:
Walton interrupted the prosecution's playing of a video from Clemens' 2008 testimony before Congress and had the jury removed from the courtroom. ... Walton was angered that in the video prosecutors showed the jury, congressman Elijah Cummings 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 on Wednesday ...
Unbelievable.
3 comments:
You forgot the "fucking".
Un-fucking-believable.
Blogtard, you have it all wrong! You must mean 'unbefuckinglievable' or perhaps for the family audience: 'unbeluckinfievable.'
One wonders if prosecutors are so used to trampling all over ordinary people rights - people who don't have a gazillion dollars for a half-assed good defence - that they've forgotten how this rule of law thing actually works.
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