Feds Drop Barry Bonds Prosecution

“The DOJ could have asked the high court to take the case”, the AP report noted. A federal appeals court ruled that decision was invalid in April. “A jury convicted him of obstructing justice because of the answer he gave when he was asked if his personal trainer Greg Anderson ever injected him with steroids.” class=”local_link” >USA Today, Bonds attorney Dennis Riordan declined comment early Tuesday, saying he needed to speak with his client before discussing the case publicly. An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that conviction in April, and the government had until Wednesday to file for a Supreme Court review.

Bonds was indicted on obstruction of justice and perjury charges in 2007. “I was a celebrity child, not just in baseball by my own instincts”. The DOJ had a few avenues to appeal the decision including a petition to the United States Supreme Court. “I just don’t get into other people’s business because of my father’s situation, you see”. The slugger was convicted on one obstruction charge in 2011, and the jury deadlocked on three perjury counts.

“Throughout this process my faith in God, along with so many who have supported me, is what has kept me going”, Bonds said in his statement, thanking fans who had backed him and his legal team.

Bonds has already served his sentence of one month of home confinement and 250 hours of community service.

He will no longer be linked to felony charges and the clearing of his criminal record could potentially pave the way for him to gain election into baseball’s Hall of Fame.

After seven seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Bonds played for the San Francisco Giants from 1993 until he retired in 2007 as Major League Baseball’s career home run leader with 762. A player must garner at least 75 per cent of the vote to be elected.

Though Bonds is no longer a felon, many fans-and even some baseball peers-have concluded that he cheated by using performance-enhancing drugs.

The appeals court 10-1 ruling erased what was left of the Bonds prosecution, which began in 2003 when his name surfaced in records linked to a then-obscure Peninsula laboratory known as BALCO that became the epicenter of doping in sports, according to Mercury News.

“Thank you to all of you who have expressed your heartfelt wishes to me; for that, I am grateful”, Bonds said.