Barry Bonds Moves to Have His Felony Conviction Erased

One’s feelings toward Barry Bonds are irrelevant. CBS.com reports that Bonds has filed an appeal in an attempt to rectify an injustice.

Okay, that’s not exactly what the headline states.

Bonds’ attorneys are attempting to have his felony conviction for obstruction of justice erased. If logic and fairness still count, it should be a "slam dunk."

A jury decided that Bonds had obstructed justice after he gave a rambling but truthful answer to a grand jury when asked if his trainer ever provided him with an injectable substance.

Referring to himself as a “celebrity child,” Bonds didn’t answer the question directly.

Bonds’ appellate attorney, Dennis Riordan, pointed out that his client had answered the question earlier in his grand jury appearance, when he stated that the only injections he received had been from his doctor.

The key to the appeal came when Riordan argued that the prosecution, when questioning Bonds, had a "legal obligation to clarify unresponsive testimony." The prosecutors should have repeated the question until Bonds answered directly.

They didn’t.

If Bonds continued to ramble, the judge should have stepped in and told Bonds to answer directly or be held in contempt. No such warning was issued.

Earlier, Riordan made an excellent point that puts things into perspective: “This case arose out of the federal government's efforts to combat steroid use in sports. That crusade, while admirable in its underlying purpose, has been pursued with an intensity at times bordering on zealotry."

Just ask Roger Clemens.

But in some ways, the prosecutors are paper tigers. After the jury deadlocked on three charges that alleged Bonds lied to a grand jury when he denied ever knowingly using performance-enhancing substances, the prosecutors, their tail between their legs, dropped those counts.

The prosecutors are not pleased that Bonds is exercising his rights. It is believed that they will claim that Bonds’ ramblings and his assertion that he was a “celebrity child” was an attempt to avoid the steroids question and mislead the grand jury.

The government couldn’t get Bonds on the primary allegations. Soon, they will be the recipients of a shutout.