It’s been over four months since Barry Bonds was convicted of obstruction of justice and over two months since Bonds filed a motion to have that conviction set aside. Yesterday Bonds’ lawyers and the government had oral arguments in front of Judge Susan Illston about it all, but she’s still thinking about it, no decision has been reached and she gave no indication when would be.
You’ll recall that the primary basis for Bonds’ motion was that one cannot or at least should not be convicted of obstruction of justice on the basis of giving “evasive testimony” when in fact he actually answered the question. And Bonds did -- after a brief, meaningless digression -- answer the question at issue with a straight “no” answer. And answering the question aside, the law in this area makes it clear: the burden is on the prosecutor to direct a less-than-cooperative witness to answer a question, not to simply let him ramble, throw his hands up in the air and cry “obstruction!” or “perjury!”
All that said, I wouldn’t necessarily read anything into the fact that the judge didn’t issue a ruling yesterday. Maybe it’s an indication that she’s not hot affirm the conviction or maybe she’s flummoxed, sure, but it’s also just as likely that she’s been waiting/hoping that Bonds and the prosecution would settle all of this somehow thereby preventing her from even having to rule. I mean, I’m sure there are more important matters on her docket.