US Decides To Forfeit Further Appeal In Barry Bonds Case

After more than a decade of being investigated by the federal government, baseball’s controversial home run king – Barry Bonds – no longer has a criminal record after the U.S. Justice Department filed a a court document Tuesday saying it will no longer seek charges against him.

In his third year on the Hall ballot in 2015, Bonds received 202 votes for 36.8 per cent from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in April said that answer didn’t amount to obstruction.

Bonds’ legal battle started in 2003 when his name surfaced in connection with BALCO. He avoided a perjury conviction, but was found guilty of obstruction for a roundabout answer when asked about his former personal trainer, Greg Anderson, and if he ever injected Bonds with steroids.

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. 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.

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

“That’s what keeps our friendship”, Bonds said. The DOJ said in its court filing that the solicitor general would not appeal the case, meaning the reversal of Bonds’ conviction would stand.

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.

Bonds and his defense team of six lawyers appealed, first to a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit and then to a rarely convened 11-judge panel of the same court.

His sentence of two years of probation and 30 days of home confinement was put on hold pending his appeal.

Bonds ended his career after the 2007 season with 762 homers, surpassing the record of 755 that Hank Aaron set from 1954-76. Thank you to all of you who have expressed your heartfelt wishes to me; for that, I am grateful.