Jury Seated in Bonds' Trial

Bonds inside courtroom for jury selection

More than seven years after Barry Bonds told a grand jury he never knowingly took steroids, the perjury trial of the former Giants slugger began in San Francisco.

To the surprise of most, a jury was selected by early afternoon Monday.

It only took five hours of questioning for prosecutors and Bonds' lawyers to agree on 12 jurors and two alternates from a pool of around 100 prospective jurors. The group had already filled out a 19-page questionnaire prior to coming to the court house. The Associated Press reports the jury includes four men and eight women.

That sets the stage for the high profile trial to officially began. It is expected to last three to four weeks.

Bonds is accused of four counts of making false statements. Those four statements were that he never knowingly took steroids from his trainer Greg Anderson; never was injected by him; never  knowingly took human growth hormone from him; and never took anything other  than vitamins from him before 2003.

Bonds is also facing one count of obstruction of justice for that 2003 testimony. Prosecutors will try to prove he was intentionally evasive, false and misleading in those and other statements.

He is the last of 11 defendants who were charged in federal court in San Francisco with either illegal drug distribution or lying in connection with BALCO probe.

The five counts against Bonds each carry a theoretical maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if he is convicted.   

Bonds is not on trial for using steroids. Instead he's accused of lying about it.

Bay City News contributed to this report.

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