A lawyer of former MLB star Barry Bonds has urged a federal court to dispose of the ex-slugger's obstruction of justice conviction.
Dennis Riordan argued Wednesday before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Bonds' was never specifically charged with the crime he was convicted of. Bonds was convicted in 2011 of obstructing justice by the evasive testimony he gave in 2003 during a grand jury investigation of BALCO, the Bay Area labs at the center of the steroid scandal.
That particular exchange wasn't included in the indictment.
Prosecutors argue that the indictment charged Bonds generally with giving misleading testimony, which included the statement at issue.
Legal experts who have followed the case closely since his grand jury appearance in December 2003 are divided over Bonds' chances before Judges Mary Schroeder, Michael Daly Hawkins and Mary Murguia, each of whom were appointed by a different Democrat president and all of whom are based in Phoenix.
"There is a definite overriding respect of a jury's verdict," said Howard Wasserman, a Florida International University law professor. "Typically, it's pretty hard to get a jury's verdict reversed."
Regardless of the outcome, University of New Hampshire law professor Michael McCann contends that the case was ultimately a loss of the U.S. Department of Justice.
"The main thrust of the government's original case was that he lied when he denied taking steroids," said McCann, who also edits the popular Sports Law Blog. "That's not what he was convicted of. Obstruction was not the main charge."
