Duke Snider Dies: A Great Baseball Player Who Made a Wrong Choice

The late 1940s and the 1950s were great times for baseball-- at least New York baseball. My brother, my cousin and I were New York baseball fans, although we lived in a small town in South Carolina. "Our" teams were the Giants, the Yankees and the Dodgers, respectively. (I was the youngest of the three, so got the last choice; but, as it turns out the best choice.)

The New York Times reports that the legenday Duke Snider, centerfielder for the Dodgers, has died. This is from the NYT article:

In the 1950’s, the Golden Age of New York baseball, the World Series almost always meant red, white and blue bunting at Ebbets Field, Yankee Stadium or the Polo Grounds. October afternoons provided a national showcase for baseball’s premier center fielders — Snider of the Dodgers, Mickey Mantle of the Yankees and Willie Mays of the Giants.

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Barry Bonds Swings at the Obstruction Charge but Doesn't Hit This Time

In United States v. Barry Lamar Bonds, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15906 (ND CA 2011), the third superseding indictment charged four counts of false declarations before a grand jury. A fifth count charged

BARRY LAMAR BONDS,

did corruptly influence, obstruct, and impede, and endeavor to corruptly influence, obstruct, and impede, the due administration of justice, by knowingly giving material Grand Jury testimony that was intentionally evasive, false, and misleading, including but not limited to the false statements made by the defendant as charged in Counts One through Four of this Indictment. All in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1503.

In order to assure that there was a unanimous verdict as to guilt, the Government agreed that the jury must be instructed "to agree unanimously as to which statement or statements constitute obstruction of justice." In other words, for example, the six members of the jury could not pick one or more statements for conviction and the other six pick other statements to use for conviction. The jurors would need to agree upon at least one or more actions -- in this case statements -- that constitute obstruction.
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Grand Juries Are Not for Trial Preparation After Indictment

The Government properly uses grand juries to investigate and prepare cases for trial. But, what happens if the Government to continue using the indicting grand jury same or even some other grand jury (new or continuing) to tie up the loose ends in the indicted case? Most of us understand instinctively that that is a problem because it circumvents the discovery rules allowed in criminal cases.

This is, of course, not usually even a significant risk in most tax crimes cases. But, in the larger cases it could be an issue.
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