Feds Drop Obstruction of Justice Case Against Barry Bonds

Instead, the DOJ said in a one-paragraph court filing Tuesday that the reversal of Bonds’ conviction would stand.

William Portanova, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice, disagreed, saying the prosecution acted as a deterrent despite the lack of a conviction. A federal appeals court ruled that decision was invalid in April.

Clemens was acquitted in 2012 on charges that he lied to Congress. The investigation netted a number of convictions and prison terms, including BALCO mastermind Victor Conte, but it appears the superstar considered the biggish fish got away in the end. He was charged four years later with lying to the grand jury about receiving performance-enhancing drugs and went on trial in 2011.

Bonds was being prosecuted for obstruction of justice due to an answer he gave during a federal grand jury in 2003. The government dismissed those counts in August 2011, and the 9th Circuit barred a retrial on the obstruction charge, citing double jeopardy. “I was a celebrity child, not just in baseball by my own instincts”.

The answer included musings about being “a celebrity child with a famous father” and other remarks jurors later said were meant to evade questions about his steroid use.

“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. The court said the answer wasn’t “material” to the sprawling federal investigation into sports doping. But he was caught in the middle of baseball’s BALCO performance-enhancing drug scandal in the early 2000s. He served the home confinement portion while waiting for his appeal to be decided.

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. Tuesday’s decision to drop the case against him is not likely to help him with Hall of Fame voters.

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.