WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors urged a federal judge Friday to allow them to retry Roger Clemens on perjury and related charges, arguing a high-profile blunder on their part should not block them from getting another shot at the legendary pitcher.
In a 36-page filing in the District’s federal court, prosecutors provided their first official explanation for why they presented barred evidence to jurors on the second day of testimony in July, forcing a federal judge to declare a mistrial.
“The government’s error was a mistake, not misconduct,” they wrote in court papers.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton ordered prosecutors and defense attorneys to submit legal arguments about whether he should grant another trial in advance of a Sept. 2 hearing. Walton is weighing whether another trial would violate Clemens’s right to avoid double jeopardy, a legal doctrine meant to protect defendants from repeated prosecutions for the same alleged offense.
Clemens is charged with perjury, obstruction of Congress and making false statements related to his 2008 testimony before a House committee in which he denied using performance-enhancing substances.
