After years of investigations and court proceedings in the performance-enhancing drug case involving Barry Bonds, baseball’s home-run king, federal prosecutors were able to pin only one obstruction of justice conviction on him.
Now, that is gone.
On Wednesday, the 9th United States Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed the conviction from 2011, stemming from an answer that Bonds gave to a grand jury in 2003. An 11-judge panel of the appeals court, ruling 10-1, said that it was not material to the government’s investigation into a drug-distribution ring.
Bonds hit a record 762 home runs in a 22-year career in the major leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Francisco Giants that ended in 2007, shortly after he passed Hank Aaron for the career mark.