WaPo: Clemens’s DNA Is Linked to Syringes

Drop your pseudogenes!

Scientific tests have linked Roger Clemens’s DNA to blood in syringes that a personal trainer says he used to inject the former star pitcher with performance-enhancing drugs, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The DNA results, which are preliminary and subject to verification tests, could prove critical if prosecutors seek an indictment of Clemens on charges that he lied about the use of steroids, according to the sources.

...Legal experts said DNA evidence could prove to be a critical tool for prosecutors at trial. “The fact that it’s DNA evidence gives it a certain extra mystique with the jury,” said Stevan Bunnell, a former federal prosecutor.

Still, the DNA results are only part of the equation. Scientists at the Anti-Doping Research Institute in Los Angeles, who were brought onto the case by authorities, are trying to determine whether the syringes ever contained steroids and human growth hormone, the sources said.

Clemens has said he was injected with vitamin B-12 and a painkiller over the years. Without any evidence of steroids or human growth hormone in the syringes, prosecutors will face a tougher time convincing jurors that Clemens was injected with those substances, legal experts said.

However, if authorities “are able to prove [that steroids] were in the syringes, it will be a much more significant problem for Clemens,” said Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor.