Barry Bonds was back in court today. From the Merc before the proceedings:
In a hearing set for Thursday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston will consider Bonds’ bid to set aside his April conviction for providing evasive testimony to a federal grand jury probing the Balco steroids scandal in December 2003. The hearing may also provide federal prosecutors their first chance to reveal publicly whether they intend to retry Bonds on three perjury counts left unresolved in this spring’s trial.
And after:
Judge Illston has ended the hearing without making a decision, saying she’ll issue a written order later. So the suspense will go on indefinitely. (She) has given an indication she’s skeptical of Bonds’ legal argument, which is based on the idea that the statement at the heart of his obstruction conviction was the only reason behind the jury’s verdict. She told Bonds’ attorney Dennis Riordan that the statement, which was in response to a question about whether Bonds had ever been injected with a syringe, has to be considered in context with all the evidence presented at trial. “I don’t think it’s fair to say you look at just that one statement,” the judge said, prompting an exasperated Riordan to point out that he always objected to the jury instruction on the obstruction charge because the jury might in fact do just that.
Read the full account from the Merc’s Howard Mintz here.