A lawyer for Major League Baseball player, Barry Bonds, who became embroiled in the steroids controversy and was sentenced to two years probation after being found guilty of lying to a grand jury, is seeking to have the conviction tossed out on Wednesday.
Bonds' appellate specialist Dennis Riordan said that his client's long answer he gave before a grand jury was not a true crime.
According CNNSI.com, Riordan argued that Bonds was not formally or specifically charged with the felony that he was convicted of committing. A federal jury in April 2011 found MLB's all-time home run leader guilty of obstruction for saying he was a "celebrity child" when asked about whether he injected himself with steroids.
Bonds' legal team asked for a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the lone felony conviction, which stemmed from Bonds' nearly 3-hour testimony before a grand jury, which investigated his use of performance enhancing drug use and sales among elite athletes.
Bonds, who was rejected by voters last month in his first year of eligibility into the Hall of Fame, was not required to attend Wednesday's "highly technical hearing," even though Riordan said his client expressed an ineterest to watch the proceedings.
"His presence would have been a distraction," Riordan said.
Legal experts who have followed the case closely since his grand jury appearance in December 2003 remain divided over Bonds' chances of overriding the previous conviction leveled at him.
"There is a definite overriding respect of a jury's verdict," said Howard Wasserman, a Florida International University law professor. "Typically, it's pretty hard to get a jury's verdict reversed."
Williame Keane, a San Francisco criminal defense attorney still thinks Bonds can clear his name.
"The government's biggest hurdle is that testimony obstruction cases are usually based on blatant, undeniable lies to questions at the heart of an investigation," Keane said. "Here the prosecution limps in with only a single rambling, unresponsive, unimportant answer that is literally true."
Bonds will have to serve 30 days under house arrest if the conviction is upheld.
