SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Now that a jury has been selected in the Barry Bonds perjury trial, the prosecutors and the slugger's lawyers are scheduled Tuesday to deliver opening statements.
The two sides spent five hours Monday picking a jury of eight women and four men with two women alternates. The jurors were excused Monday afternoon without hearing testimony, which will begin after opening statements.
Along with the swearing in of the jury and opening statements, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston is expected to send the jurors out of the courtroom Tuesday so she can send Bonds' former personal trainer Greg Anderson to jail.
Illston told Anderson on March 1 that she plans to have him kept in custody for the length of the trial if he follows through as expected on his vow of silence. Anderson's attorney, Mark Geragos, said he will argue that Anderson can't be jailed on contempt charges because he already served a little more than a year on similar charges after refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating Bonds.
After she dispenses with Anderson, the jury will be seated and instructed on how to consider evidence during the two-to-four week trial. They will also be admonished from discussing the case outside of court.
Bonds, the all-time leader in home runs (762) and homers in a season (73), is facing four counts of lying to a grand jury and one of obstruction for testifying that he never knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs. He was indicted in 2007, weeks after he played his last game.
Several cases nationwide have been derailed by mistrials or appellate reversals after jurors were discovered discussing ongoing trials on social network sites, and Illston decided late Monday to issue a general admonition to avoid "discussing the case in person, in writing, by phone or electronic means, via email, text messaging, or any Internet chat room, blog."
Dressed in a dark suit and silver tie, the 46-year-old Bonds spent most of Monday speaking quietly with his attorneys and looking at prospective jurors as they underwent questioning.