SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds has asked for a second extension to file written arguments in his appeal to overturn his obstruction of justice conviction.
Bonds' lawyers asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday to extend the deadline from April 20 to May 4. The original deadline had been March 21 before the court granted a 30-day extension last month.
Dennis Riordan, Bonds' appeals lawyer, said in a filing to the court that his office could not meet the April 20 deadline because of several other cases it was involved in.
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SIGN UP HERE Bonds' appeal will be randomly assigned to a three-judge panel that will hear oral arguments this year. A decision is not likely until 2013.
Even without prison time, the case has left its mark on the seven-time National League MVP. His 762 career home runs, and 73 homers in 2001, may forever be seen as tainted records, and his ticket to baseball's Hall of Fame is in doubt.
Bonds was sentenced to two years of probation, 250 hours of community service, a 4,000 fine and 30 days of home confinement. It will take time to determine whether he serves any of it; his appellate specialist, Dennis Riordan, estimated shortly after sentencing that it would take nearly a year and a half for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rule.
Bonds is the last -- and highest-profile -- defendant in the government's investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO, a steroids distribution ring. The ex-slugger has long denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.
The case against Bonds after he testified before the grand jury Dec. 3, 2003. Prosecutors revised his original 2007 indictment several times and spent a year unsuccessfully appealing a key evidentiary ruling before jurors deadlocked in April on three of the four remaining charges related to his grand jury testimony.