I get the steroid thing, I really do. But, the federal government spending millions to try and put athletes in jail is misguided.
We are fighting two wars, have troops stationed all over the world, and the War on Terrorism is supposed to be an American priority, thus the Patriot Act enacted.
So when a jury recently convicted baseball star Barry Bonds in April of purposely not answering questions about steroids in an attempt to mislead a grand jury in 2003, it was announced that Bonds will remain free while he appeals his conviction for giving misleading testimony before a grand jury.
A federal judge handed Bonds a sentence of 30 days of house arrest, two years of probation and 250 hours of community service on Friday — then delayed the sentence pending an appeal likely to take a year or more.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston also put on hold a $4,000 fine against Bonds for his obstruction of justice conviction arising from a grand jury appearance eight years ago.
Prosecutors wanted the home run king to spend 15 months in prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella argued that home confinement wasn’t punishment enough.
I agree that in relation to competition in sports there needs to be equal guidelines for fair competition, I get that. But all the major professional sports have governing bodies with ownership and commissioners, so why is my federal government spending eight years trying to put a man in jail who did not transport, make or sell drugs? The fact of the matter is the man has never beat up any old ladies or attempted to murder anyone or is a threat to society at large.
I want my government to put some of these criminals in in jail or find the murderers of Tupac and Biggie. With the effort and money they have thrown at Bonds they could have solved both those murders and at least 100 more.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston declared a mistrial on the three charges that Barry Bonds made false statements when he told a grand jury in December 2003 that he never knowingly received steroids and human growth hormones from trainer Greg Anderson.
The decision from the eight women and four men who listened to testimony during the 12-day trial left more questions than answers.
Charged with four federal felonies, the grand jury investigation trial jury failed to reach a verdict on three other charges, accusing Bonds of lying when he denied taking performance-enhancing drugs and when he denied receiving injections from someone other than his doctor.
Prosecutors in September dropped those deadlocked charges, giving up on another trial.
Bonds, Major League Baseball’s career leader with 762 home runs, now has 14 days to file his intention to appeal his conviction.
Would putting Bonds in jail make life safer for my children or I? Heck no! With crime running rampant, does expending all these resources change anything? If anything he only hurt himself.
I understand how fans can be mad at players who try to gain an unfair advantage, but let the sports governing bodies do their job.
I do not want my federal government spending millions of dollars of our tax money chasing a harmless baseball player, whose conviction would be a fly on an elephant’s behind in terms of improving the quality of life for Americans.
Leland Stein can be reached at lelstein3@aol.com or Twitter @LelandSteinIII
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