Craig Calcaterra believes the criminal conviction against Barry Bonds will be overturned:

Thanks to a Good Friend of HardballTalk, the entire oral argument is on video below. If you don’t wish to watch it all, however, know this much: the court reamed the prosecutors, demonstrating skepticism to the point of being dumbfounded that a person could be convicted of obstruction of justice on the basis which Bonds was convicted.

The court asked all manner of questions of the prosecution about how Bonds’ answer to a question about steroid use which he (a) actually answered; and (b) was found by the jury to have answered truthfully, could be obstruction. They also excoriated the prosecution over the fact that Bonds’ allegedly obstructing statement wasn’t even set forth in his indictment and that the instruction the jury was forced to follow on the matter essentially mandated that Bonds be convicted no matter what he said. Put as plainly as possible: the jury wasn’t allowed to actually see that Bonds, you know, answered the question.

The investigation of Bonds was a witch hunt from the beginning. Think what you will about Bonds and how he achieved his home run records, it did not deserved a miscarriage of justice. Somehow cheating to catch a cheater doesn’t seem right.