Barry Bonds Trial: Guilty Verdict Related To Answer About Syringe

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With Barry Bonds found guilty on one count of obstruction of justice, and a mistrial declared on three other counts, the baseball and legal world exploded into a supernova of confusion. Sports Illustrated’s George Dohrmann was at the trial, and tweeted his first thought to the verdict:

Snap analysis: An odd verdict. Basically got Bonds for rambling and avoiding questions and maybe being less than truthful.

The specific charge that Bonds was found guilty of was Statement C of Count Five:

Question: Did Greg ever give you anything that required a syringe to inject yourself with?

Answer: I’ve only had one doctor touch me. And that’s my only personal doctor. Greg, like I said, we don’t get into each others’ personal lives. We’re friends, but I don’t – we don’t sit around and talk baseball, because he knows I don’t want – don’t come to my house talking baseball. If you want to come to my house and talk about fishing, some other stuff, we’ll be good friends. You come around talking about baseball, you go on. I don’t talk about his business. You know what I mean?

That statement is what the jury found to be obstructive enough for Bonds to be convicted, though there is no explanation yet as to why, if Bonds obstructed justice with that statement, that didn’t translate into a guilty verdict for one of the charges of perjury as well.