Roger Clemens Acquitted of Perjury

A federal jury on Monday acquitted Roger Clemens of perjury and a handful of related charges, a verdict that brings an end to a case that dates back to the pitching great's 2008 testimony about steroid use before Congress.

Clemens had been charged with two counts of perjury, three counts of making false statements, and one count of obstructing Congress for denying that he had ever taken steroids, human growth hormone, or other illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

The seven-time Cy Young Award winner would have faced a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine if he had been convicted on all six counts. Although, in reality, that sentence would likely have been less than two years under U.S. sentencing guidelines.

The Washington Post with the trial play-by-play:

"Over seven weeks of testimony in the case against Clemens, jurors heard from more than 40 witnesses, including former major league ballplayers, a housekeeper, the general manager of the New York Yankees and the wife of the star pitcher. The trial, initially anticipated to last four to six weeks, was at times slow going, with two jurors dismissed for sleeping on the job."

And on the jury's task:

"In reaching a verdict, the panel of eight women and four men had to decide whether Clemens’s answers to questions from Congressional investigators and lawmakers were 'material' or relevant to the work of committee 'as distinguished from unimportant or trivial facts,' according to the lengthy jury instructions."

Jurors informed the court that they had reached a unanimous verdict earlier Monday, after returning to deliberations following a somewhat unusual four-day break. They didn't meet last Thursday or Friday because the presiding judge had a long-scheduled speaking engagement that he didn't want to break.