For almost a decade, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has examined Bonds for obstruction of justice and filed a one paragraph legal document stating it would not ask the Supreme Court to review a lower court’s reversal of his felony conviction.
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The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday dropped a almost 10-year prosecution of former San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds over performance-enhancing drugs, according to multiple reports.
In April, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Bonds’ answer then did not constitute obstruction of justice and was not pertinent to a broader federal investigation to sports doping in the San Francisco area.
“That’s what keeps our friendship”, replied Bonds.
Major League Baseball had no immediate comment.
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. The DOJ said in its court filing that the solicitor general would not appeal the case, meaning the reversal of Bonds’ conviction would stand.
After a almost decade-long steroids prosecution, Barry Bonds emerged victorious Tuesday when federal prosecutors dropped what was left of their criminal case against the career home runs leader. In addition, the slugger was convicted on one obstruction charge in 2011, and the jury deadlocked on three perjury charges.
Since his retirement, Bonds has all but completely faded out of the public eye.
He served the home confinement before his conviction was overturned.
Despite that, he has not come close to being elected into the Hall of Fame due to his PED ties.
After the 2011 trial and conviction, a federal judge sentenced Bonds to 30 days of home confinement, two years of probation, 250 hours of community service in youth-related activities and a $4,000 fine. Thank you to all of you who have expressed your heartfelt wishes to me; for that, I am grateful.
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For Bonds, the clearing of his criminal record could provide ammunition for his stated goal of eventually gaining entry into baseball’s Hall of Fame, although the baseball world long ago concluded he used performance enhancing drugs to boost his career, and Bonds himself testified that he was simply not aware the substances he was taking were steroids known as the “cream” and the “clear”.
