More on Roger Clemens

You know I think prosecuting Roger Clemens is a giant waste of time and money. And that the prosecution really shouldn't get to do it a second time since they're the ones who screwed up the first time necessitating a mistrial. Turns out I'm not alone in thinking the prosecution is wasteful and shouldn't continue. Some jurors at the first trial think so, too.

The idea being that maybe Congress has much, much bigger things to be worrying about these days than whether baseball players are using steroids or other performance enhancing drugs and whether players weren't exactly up front with Congress about these matters. In an era of giant deficit, debts, unemployment, partisanship, war, etc., perhaps cleaning up baseball really should be left to MLB.

It's also probably that the Department of Justice could be prioritizing their resources better. I get being offended that someone allegedly lied to Congress. But not everything that can be prosecuted as a crime should be. I have to believe that there are worthier uses of these prosecuting attorneys' time than this particular case. In the most respectful way possible, might I suggest that at the very least, the DoJ should take some of the money going toward this silly prosecution and put it into training its attorneys on how to avoid committing misconduct and how to comply with their duties to share exculpatory evidence with defense counsel?

Jury selection at Clemens' second trial is set to begin Monday. At this point, it's probably too late to avoid inconveniencing all the people who have been summoned to jury duty. But, still, it would be pretty nice, refreshing, if the prosecutors would walk into court Monday morning and announce that despite their good faith belief that they have sufficient evidence to proceed to trial, they have decided to exercise discretion and drop the matter. Save the taxpayers a little money. They won't do it, of course. Prosecutors really don't like to let things go like that. But it would be nice to see.