There is "sufficient evidence" - a positive drug test, shrinking testicles and an eyewitness who saw trainer Greg Anderson inject Barry Bonds - to permit the sluggers' obstruction of justice charge to stand, Bay Area prosecutors said in court papers filed late Wednesday.
The feds also asked U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, who presided over the home run king's perjury trial this spring, to deny Bonds' request for a new trial on the obstruction charge.
Bonds' legal team had argued in papers filed last month that the slugger's conviction should be vacated because the jury received flawed instructions.
Bonds' lawyers also claimed he never attempted to obstruct justice. Bonds rambled when asked during his 2003 BALCO grand jury testimony that nobody but his personal physician had ever injected him with a needle, his lawyers conceded, but he did not attempt to be evasive.
Bonds was convicted of obstruction of justice in April after a two-week trial in San Francisco. The jury deadlocked on three perjury-related charges; the government has not said if it will prosecute Bonds again on those counts. Illston has scheduled an Aug. 26 hearing in the case.
