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Jury to begin deliberations in Bonds trial; closing arguments heard
AP
Photo
Former baseball player Barry Bonds, center, leaves federal court in San Francisco, Thursday, April 7, 2011. Bonds is charged with three counts of lying to a grand jury in 2003 and a count of obstruction for denying that he knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs and for saying no one other than his doctors gave him an injection. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO
The eight women and four men sat in the jury box for more than 41/2 hours, listening to angry arguments from federal prosecutors and Barry Bonds’ attorneys at the end of a 12-day trial that exposed the dark world of baseball’s Steroids Era.
Now, Bonds’ fate is up to them.
After listening to tawdry accusations of drug use, theft and body parts that grew (Bonds’ head) and shrank (his testicles), the 12-member panel gets to decide whether the home run king will become a convicted felon.
Bonds’ trial on charges he lied to a grand jury more than seven years ago when he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs ended Thursday with closing arguments from both sides that were filled with virulence and self-righteousness.
“There’s a real irony to this case,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella concluded. “These substances that the defendant took to make himself strong — he wasn’t strong. He was weak. He was too weak to tell the truth despite all the anabolic steroids.”
The jury’s first order of business when it starts deliberations today is to elect a foreman. Then it must sort through the testimony of 25 witnesses and hundreds of exhibits that include syringes, vials and dizzying computer graphs of drug tests.
A seven-time MVP regarded as among the greatest hitters ever, Bonds is charged with three counts of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice. His lawyers ridiculed the prosecution as being celebrity obsessed and willing to cut deals with anyone who would implicate perhaps the top player of his generation.