US DOJ drops prosecution of Barry Bonds

The decade-long investigation and prosecution of Bonds for obstruction of justice ended quietly Tuesday morning when the DOJ said it would not challenge the reversal of his felony conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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. The U.S. Solicitor General, who ordinarily makes final decisions on whether to appeal cases to the high court, elected against pressing the Bonds appeal, according to the court document.

Bonds played with the Giants from 1993 to 2007 and during that time set the Major League Baseball career home run record of 762, as well as the single-season record of 73 in 2001.

Bonds has been eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame for the last three years, without ever getting close.

In his 2003 testimony, Bonds admitted to the grand jury he had taken substances often known as “the clear” and “the cream” from Anderson however stated he thought they have been flaxseed oil and arthritis ointment.

Bonds was never officially caught as a steroid user, but has long since been the poster-boy for the steroid era. But he was caught in the middle of baseball’s BALCO performance-enhancing drug scandal in the early 2000s. “Instead, the DOJ said the reversal of Bonds’ conviction would stand”. “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.

A jury convicted Bonds in 2011 of obstruction of justice for giving a meandering answer to a federal grand jury when asked about injections.

He served the home confinement before his conviction was overturned.

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