Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca9-11-10669/USCOURTS-ca9-11-10669-2/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Barry Lamar Bonds
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

 FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

 Plaintiff - Appellee,

 v.

BARRY LAMAR BONDS,

 Defendant - Appellant.

No. 11-10669

D.C. No. 3:07-cr-00732-SI-1

OPINION

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Northern District of California

Susan Illston, Senior District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted September 18, 2014

San Francisco, California

Before: REINHARDT, KOZINSKI, O’SCANNLAIN, GRABER, 

WARDLAW, W. FLETCHER, RAWLINSON, CALLAHAN, 

N.R. SMITH, NGUYEN and FRIEDLAND, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

During a grand jury proceeding, defendant gave a rambling, non-responsive

answer to a simple question. Because there is insufficient evidence that Statement

C was material, defendant’s conviction for obstruction of justice in violation of 18

FILED

APR 22 2015

MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK

U.S. COURT OF APPEALS

 Case: 11-10669, 04/22/2015, ID: 9505007, DktEntry: 74-1, Page 1 of 3
page 2

U.S.C. § 1503 is not supported by the record. Whatever section 1503’s scope may

be in other circumstances, defendant’s conviction here must be reversed.

A reversal for insufficient evidence implicates defendant’s right under the

Double Jeopardy Clause. See United States v. Preston, 751 F.3d 1008, 1028 (9th

Cir. 2014) (en banc) (citing Burks v. United States, 437 U.S. 1, 11 (1978)). His

conviction and sentence must therefore be vacated, and he may not be tried again

on that count.

REVERSED.

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page 3

COUNSEL

Dennis P. Riordan (argued) and Donald M. Horgan, Riordan & Horgan, San

Francisco, California; Ted Sampsell Jones, William Mitchell College of Law, St.

Paul, Minnesota, for Appellant.

Merry Jean Chan (argued), Assistant United States Attorney, Melinda Haag,

United States Attorney, Barbara J. Valliere, Assistant United States Attorney,

Chief, Appellate Division, United States Attorneys’ Office, San Francisco,

California, for Appellee.

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