Roger Clemens — not guilty.

The charge was perjury — in telling Congress that he'd never used steroids or human growth hormone.

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....

Last spring, Clemens’s initial trial ended in a mistrial on only the second day of testimony when prosecutors bungled by showing the jury inadmissible evidence. Critics said the prosecution of an athlete like Clemens — a seven-time Cy Young Award winner — was a waste of government time and money, but the United States attorney’s office in Washington pressed forward anyway.

This time, the trial lasted much longer. The jurors heard from 46 witnesses over more than eight weeks....