“Mr. Clemens, you are free to go.”
With that, retired pitcher Roger Clemens was found not guilty of perjury on Monday afternoon. Clemens faced prison time for charges that he lied to U.S. Congress in 2008 when he claimed he’d never used performance-enhancing substances during his 24-year career.
“It’s been a hard five years,” the Cy Young Award winner told reporters after learning the decision.
As the New York Times reports, the verdict was decided by a panel of 12 individuals who mostly do not follow baseball. They heard from 46 witnesses during a trial that lasted more than two months. “It was a major, especially painful, defeat for the government in its second failed attempt at convicting a player whose legal problems highlighted baseball’s continuing drug woes,” the paper reports.