Barry Bonds's Conviction Overturned

[amigocabal]

During a grand jury proceeding, defendant gave a rambling, non-responsive
answer to a simple question. Because there is insufficient evidence that Statement
C was material, defendant’s conviction for obstruction of justice in violation of 18

U.S.C. § 1503 is not supported by the record. Whatever section 1503’s scope may
be in other circumstances, defendant’s conviction here must be reversed.
A reversal for insufficient evidence implicates defendant’s right under the
Double Jeopardy Clause. See United States v. Preston, 751 F.3d 1008, 1028 (9th
Cir. 2014) (en banc) (citing Burks v. United States, 437 U.S. 1, 11 (1978)). His
conviction and sentence must therefore be vacated, and he may not be tried again
on that count.

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[Purple]

Could you give us some context here? Who is this Barry Bond character? A Wikipedia search reveals nothing.

[TheFeniX]

Barry Bonds was the American baseball player at the center of a doping scandal. Years later, they have overturned his Obstruction conviction because rambling answers that don't actually answer anything don't consistent obstruction.

Defendant, who was then a professional baseball player, was summoned
before a grand jury and questioned for nearly three hours about his suspected use
of steroids. He was subsequently charged with four counts of making false
statements and one count of obstruction of justice, all based on his grand jury
testimony. The jury convicted him on the obstruction count and was otherwise
unable to reach a verdict.
The jury instructions identified seven of defendant’s statements that the
government alleged obstructed justice. The jury, however, found only one
statement obstructive. That statement was referred to as Statement C at trial and is
underlined in the passage below:

Q: Did Greg[, your trainer,] ever give you anything that
required a syringe to inject yourself with?
A: I’ve only had one doctor touch me. And that’s my only
personal doctor. Greg, like I said, we don’t get into each
others’ personal lives. We’re friends, but I don’t—we don’t
sit around and talk baseball, because he knows I don’t want—
don’t come to my house talking baseball. If you want to come
to my house and talk about fishing, some other stuff, we’ll be
good friends. You come around talking about baseball, you go
on. I don’t talk about his business. You know what I mean?
Q: Right.
A: That’s what keeps our friendship. You know, I am sorry, but
that—you know, that—I was a celebrity child, not just in
baseball by my own instincts. I became a celebrity child with a
famous father. I just don’t get into other people’s business
because of my father’s situation, you see.

Defendant was again asked about injectable steroids immediately following
this exchange and a few other times during his testimony. He provided direct
responses to the follow-up questions. For example, he was asked whether he ever
“injected [him]self with anything that Greg . . . gave [him].” He responded “I’m
not that talented, no.” The government believed that those answers were false but,
as noted, the jury failed to convict defendant on the false statement counts.
The district court rejected defendant’s post-verdict motion for acquittal on
the obstruction count and a three-judge panel affirmed. United States v. Bonds,
730 F.3d 890 (9th Cir. 2013). We granted en banc rehearing. United States v.
Bonds, 757 F.3d 994 (9th Cir. 2014).

[Titan Uranus]

I know nothing about his testimony, was he attempting to obfuscate or was he really just so deeply stupid/absentminded that he could not answer questions? Because I really can't tell from that bit of transcript, but it looks like either there's nothing between his ears or he is doing some really ballsy dissembling there.

[amigocabal]

An update. The Ninth Circuit issued the mandate.

[Zaune]

I know nothing about his testimony, was he attempting to obfuscate or was he really just so deeply stupid/absentminded that he could not answer questions? Because I really can't tell from that bit of transcript, but it looks like either there's nothing between his ears or he is doing some really ballsy dissembling there.

I can only surmise that the court isn't sure either, but they can't actually prove it was him dissembling rather than just being thick.

[Flagg]

Well, good thing we can contain the Bonds-Hulk, for now at least.