(Slate) – A federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned Barry Bonds’ obstruction of justice felony conviction related to performance enhancing drugs, undoing the only criminal conviction to come from the years-long investigation of the former slugger. The 2011 conviction grew out of answers Bonds gave to a grand jury in 2003.
During the 2011 trial, “[t]he jury hung on perjury charges and convicted Bonds only of obstruction for giving a long-winded answer,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “In an unsigned 10-1 ruling [on Wednesday], the [appeals] court said there was insufficient evidence that Bonds’ rambling reply was material and that he may not be retried.”
Here’s more from the L.A. Times on how the court arrived at the most recent ruling in the long-winding case: