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Monday afternoon news broke that Roger Clemens had been acquitted on all six charges facing him: not guilty on three counts of making false statements, not guilty on two counts of perjury, and not guilty on one count of obstruction.
This of course all stemmed from when Clemens testified in February 2008 to a Congressional committee, that he had never taken steroids or HGH. Clemens also faced charges that he intentionally made false statements to mislead investigators.
So fast-forward 4 years and 4 months later, and Clemens has walked away scot-free.
Some will call Clemens a liar, and point out the fact that he has the money to hire the best legal counsel around.
His true fans will say that he was innocent all along.
The reality is that 99.9% of us will never know the real truth. Every American knows there is a big difference between innocent and not guilty, and I’m willing to bet that the majority of people think Clemens is not guilty.
No matter what the people think, Clemens’ not guilty verdict is far from surprising.
Once I heard that Andy Pettitte admitted on the witness stand that he may of in fact “mis-remembered,” I expected Clemens to walk.
The Pettitte testimony, along with Brian Mcnamee’s “character issues,” were just too great for the prosecution to over come.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH7WxxBREeY
Clemens’ emotional statement after his acquittal.
I will have to admit that initially I was one of the of the people who thought Clemens was lying. I think it was his demeanour, and the way he was denying the allegations. It just came across as a guy who had his story, and he was sticking to it.
Regardless what anyone thinks about it, he did stick to his story. Not for one second did Roger Clemens waiver, ever. For that, he earned my respect. After all, who I am to say Clemens is a liar? A jury just acquitted him of six charges that could have landed him in jail for 30 years. Even if he was standing up for the wrong thing, Clemens stood up to the harshest scrutiny, and survived. I tip my cap to that…
At the end of the day, I don’t really care if Roger Clemens used steroids. He played baseball, the game most closely associated with cheating in the history of sports. He played in the era when everyone was using something to enhance their performance, and at the time, it was probably a good career move.
Everyone will always have their opinion on whether or not Roger Clemens used performance enhancing drugs. The legal records will show that he didn’t, but the court of public opinion will probably show that he did.
I understand both sides, but just remember, you’ll probably never know for sure. You can thank the American legal system for that.
Follow Andrew Fisher on Twitter @the_realfish
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