Feds end prosecution of Barry Bonds without conviction – 10News.com KGTV ABC10

According to the Associated Press, the United States Department of Justice dropped Bonds’ prosecution after almost 10 years of legal fighting.

Federal prosecutors today informed the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that they will not appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court for review of a 9th Circuit ruling overturning Bonds’ sole conviction. “Instead, the DOJ said the reversal of Bonds’ conviction would stand”.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in San Francisco didn’t respond immediately to a phone call seeking comment.

Clemens was acquitted in 2012 on charges that he lied to Congress.

“That’s what keeps our friendship”, replied Bonds. His answer, which included him saying he became a “celebrity child with a famous father”, was ruled to be evasive and “served to divert the grand jury’s attention away from the relevant inquiry of the investigation”.

Anderson refused to testify at trial and was imprisoned on contempt of court citations. The slugger was convicted on one obstruction charge in 2011, and the jury deadlocked on three perjury counts. The court said the answer wasn’t “material” to the sprawling federal investigation into sports doping.

Bonds had been sentenced in 2011 to two years’ probation, 250 hours of community service, a fine of $4,000 and ordered to spend a month of monitored home confinement.

The case involved testimony 50-year-old Bonds presented to a grand jury in 2003 about whether he used steroids in his Major League Baseball career.

In 2013, a 9th Circuit panel upheld the initial ruling, stating that factually true statements that are intended to mislead or evade can lead to an obstruction of justice conviction.

Though Bonds is no longer a felon, many fans – and even some baseball peers – have concluded that he cheated by using performance-enhancing drugs. His tumultous battle in court has come to a conclusion and the conversation regarding his bid for the Hall of Fame will likely now be more of a pressing topic in the baseball world.

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. A player must garner at least 75 percent of the vote to be elected.