The MLB's home run leader can let out a huge sigh of relief. Breaking news on Tuesday found the U.S. Department of Justice is no longer going to pursue the criminal prosecution of Barry Bonds.
Here's the short summary from The Associated Press:
"The U.S. Department of Justice formally dropped its criminal prosecution of Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball's career homerun leader.
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.
A jury convicted Bonds in 2011 of obstruction of justice for giving a meandering answer to a federal grand jury when asked about injections. A federal appeals court overturned that conviction in April.
The DOJ could have asked the high court to take the case. But the DOJ has filed a one-paragraph notice with the appeals court saying it wouldn't challenge the lower court ruling."
Back in April an 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Bonds' conviction for obstruction of justice, which ended an 11 1/2 year battle in court for the former slugger.
He will no longer be linked to felony charges and the clearing of his criminal record could potentially pave the way for him to gain election into baseball's Hall of Fame.
Bonds' obstruction of justice conviction came in 2007 after his controversial testimony back in 2003 regarding the BALCO steroids scandal, which he was allegedy associated with. A San Francisco jury found Bonds guilty in 2007 for his "rambling" answer to a question during the 2003 trial regarding whether or not Greg Anderson, his former trainer, had ever supplied him with performance-enhancing drugs.
Judge Alex Kozinski, one of the judges in favor of overturning the conviction in April, had this to say about the ruling:
"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. "Real-life witness examinations, unlike those in movies and on television, invariably are littered with non-responsive and irrelevant answers.
"..."[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."
Today marks a new beginning for baseball's home run king. His tumultous battle in court has come to a conclusion and the conversation regarding his bid for the Hall of Fame will likely now be more of a pressing topic in the baseball world.
