Justice Department Will Not Appeal Barry Bonds Perjury Case

After a decade of investigating and prosecuting baseball’s home run king for obstruction of justice, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday morning it would not challenge an April reversal of the former San Francisco Giants slugger’s felony conviction.

A jury had convicted Bonds of obstructing justice in 2007 for his answer to a question about being injected with steroids by his personal trainer, Greg Anderson.

“One of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges in favor of vacating the ruling noted that, “[The obstruction statute] stretched to its limits … poses a significant hazard for everyone involved in our system of justice, because so much of what the adversary process calls for could be construed as obstruction”.

In a court filing on Tuesday, prosecutors said they would not try to litigate the case in the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The most one can say about this statement is that it was non-responsive and thereby impeded the investigation to a small degree by wasting the grand jury’s time and trying the prosecutors’ patience”, he wrote.

Bonds was initially convicted for obstruction of justice based on his testimony before a federal grand jury in 2003.

There was no immediate comment from Bonds, his attorney, the Justice Department or Major League Baseball.

Bonds was charged four years after he testified before a grand jury after receiving a grant of immunity. “I just don’t get into other people’s business because of my father’s situation, you see”. A player must garner at least 75 per cent of the vote to be elected. But a federal court overturned that decision in April. He served the home confinement before the conviction was overturned.

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.

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

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

In 2007, Bonds retired from baseball with 762 career home runs, which broke the previous record of 755 set by Hank Aaron.