The decision from the eight women and four men who listened to testimony during the 12-day trial turned out to be a mixed and muddled verdict on the slugger that left more questions than answers.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston declared a mistrial on the three charges that Bonds made false statements when he told a grand jury in December 2003 that he never knowingly received steroids and human growth hormone from trainer Greg Anderson and that he allowed only doctors to inject him.
Defense lawyers will try to persuade Illston or the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to toss out the lone conviction. Federal prosecutors must decide whether it is worth the time and expense to try Bonds for a second time on the deadlocked charges.
Less than two miles from the ballpark where he broke Hank Aaron's career home run record in August 2007, Bonds walked out of the Phillip Burton Federal Building on a sunny, windy afternoon and looked on as his lead lawyer, Allen Ruby, held a sidewalk news conference. Ruby instructed Bonds not to comment because the case wasn't over.
Impeccably dressed in black suit and purple necktie, with a few days of stubble on his chin, Bonds flashed a victory sign to a few fans.
"Are you celebrating tonight?" one asked.
"There's nothing to celebrate," he replied.
I doubt Bonds will spend any time in prison, frankly. Federal prosecutors went after America's Home Run King, it's true. If only prosecutors had, I don't know, spent that $55 million dollars trying to go after yet another black athlete on, I don't know, trying to nail Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan, I'd have a bit more sympathy for them. There's also the question of whether or not if Bonds was a white athlete, would we even be having this trial in the first place.
The government has spent far more prosecuting Barry here than anyone in the financial crisis, which cost America $13 trillion in wealth. Which one do you think federal prosecutors should be spending time on?
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