Judges mull appeal against baseball legend's conviction

A panel of US judges called into question Thursday home-run king Barry Bonds’ conviction for giving evasive testimony about doping, as they heard an appeal against the ruling.

The 11-judge panel at the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco aggressively questioned a prosecutor who was defending how the government had secured the conviction against the former baseball star.

They also quizzed a lawyer for the former San Francisco Giants slugger, who is seeking to overturn a 2011 obstruction-of-justice conviction associated with Major League Baseball’s steroid scandal in 2003.

But their lines of questioning were more aggressive for federal prosecutor Merry Jean Chan. “How much civil litigation do you do?” one of the judges asked her at one point.

“I find your misreading of the statute absolutely alarming,” he added, as they discussed the differences between misleading, evasive and false testimony.

In 2011, a federal court convicted Bonds, now 50, of providing deceptive answers to questions regarding whether he used performance-enhancing drugs to a federal grand jury.

His lawyers said even though their client gave rambling, long-winded testimony, he should not be punished for trying to tell the truth about the so-called BALCO steroids scandal.

Bonds’ lawyer, Dennis Riordan, said Thursday that prosecutors had been happy with his client’s answers at the time.

“You cannot find corruption… you cannot find an intent to obstruct the grand jury when someone answers the question to the satisfaction of the prosecution,” said the lawyer.

The hearings lasted for over an hour. A ruling from the judges could take days, weeks, or months, according to a court spokesman, David Madden.

Bonds was sentenced in 2011 to two years’ probation, 250 hours of community service, handed a $4,000 fine and month of monitored home confinement. He began serving his sentence in September.

Despite his tainted past Bonds may be trying to get back into the game as a coach. He spent a week working with the Giants’ batters at their spring training camp in March.

Bonds holds numerous league records, including most career home runs (762) and the most home runs in a single season (73 set in 2001).