The U.S. Department of Justice formally abandoned its pursuit of criminal prosecution against former San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds on Tuesday.
In a one-paragraph court filing, the DOJ announced that it would not attempt to pursue a request to the U.S. Supreme Court to consider a lower court’s reversal of a felony conviction.
The decision ends a drawn-out case against Major League Baseball’s career home run leader that has lingered in the courts for more than a decade.
Bonds was indicted on obstruction of justice and perjury charges in 2007 and convicted on a single count of obstruction in 2011 for his rambling answer on whether he received injections of performance enhancing drugs while playing for the Giants. But he was acquitted on all perjury counts at the original trial and the obstruction of justice ruling was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals in April.
A jury had convicted Bonds of obstructing justice in 2007 for his answer to a question about being injected with steroids by his personal trainer, Greg Anderson.
“That’s what keeps our friendship,” Bonds said at the time. “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.”
In April, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Bonds’ answer then did not constitute obstruction of justice and was not pertinent to a broader federal investigation to sports doping in the San Francisco area.
There was no immediate comment from Bonds, his attorney, the Justice Department or Major League Baseball.
Bonds served 30 days of home confinement before his conviction was reversed in 2011.
In 2007, Bonds retired from baseball with 762 career home runs, which broke the previous record of 755 set by Hank Aaron.