Roger Clemens and the United States have now selected two different juries within the past year and to date, not one citizen of the United States has deliberated as to whether Roger Clemens is guilty of any crime.
Last year, Clemens’ defense team headed by Rusty Hardin, as well as United States prosecutors selected a jury of ten (10) women and two (2) men. The panel included a yoga teacher, a lawyer who testified that the US drug laws were “a bit heavy handed,” an Eagles fan who thought that Michael Vick was “done wrong,” a cousin to a former major league baseball player and coach, and a retired Mason whose son and daughter-in-law were both police officers in D.C. Ten (10) of the twelve (12) jurors were African American. Two (2) were white. Most jurors did not know of Clemens or know much about him. Jury selection took four (4) days to complete.[1] And as everyone knows, the case ended in a mistrial.
During the second jury selection, the Government and Clemens again selected ten (10) women but also six (6) men (four (4) of these are alternates). These included a retired political science professor, a teacher for deaf children, a Treasury Department official, a Metro security officer and at least one lawyer. Jury selection took five (5) days this time.[2] The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that one potential juror was questioned for 68 minutes and another for 64 minutes and neither made the cut.[3]
Why the preference for women? Is Roger Clemens that good looking? Do women not understand science? Are they more forgiving or know less about sports? Or are they more intelligent and pay attention better because this might be a long trial? Are they better judges of character than men?
One of Rusty Hardin’s themes during his opening statement was to call Roger Clemens’ case the“tale of two men.”[4] The two men are Roger Clemens and his former strength coach, Brian McNamee. Who’s telling the truth, right? Who better to sit in judgment of two men than women? It is a bit ironic that such a testosterone filled Clemens who once stared down Mike Piazza from the pitcher’s mound after throwing the ball at him and is accused of injecting anabolic steroids into his body to grow bigger, stronger and faster will ultimately allow the opposite sex to sit in his judgment. Mistake? Only the jury verdict will tell….
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