The government on Wednesday dismissed three counts of perjury against home-run king Barry Bonds that had left jurors deadlocked in his trial stemming from an investigation into athletes' use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Former San Francisco Giants baseball player Barry Bonds smiles outside the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco, California April 13, 2011. A U.S. jury on Wednesday convicted Barry Bonds on one count of obstructing justice but deadlocked on three other charges of lying to a grand jury in a trial over whether the baseball home run king used steroids. REUTERS

The government on Wednesday dismissed three counts of perjury against home-run king Barry Bonds that had left jurors deadlocked in his trial stemming from an investigation into athletes' use of performance-enhancing drugs.

In the government's long-running prosecution of Bonds related to the probe, jurors convicted him in April of a single count of obstruction of justice but could not reach a verdict on the three counts of whether he lied to a grand jury.

All the charges arose from Bonds's testimony to a 2003 grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative in a scandal that tarnished some of the biggest names in Major League Baseball.

The government did not detail its decision to dismiss the three counts. Last Friday, a federal judge overseeing the Bonds case denied a request by his lawyers to set aside the obstruction of justice conviction.

Bonds was indicted three months after breaking Hank Aaron's career home-run record in 2007. Bonds finished his career in 2007 with 762 home runs, the most in Major League Baseball history.

Bonds, who spent much of his career with the San Francisco Giants, also set the single-season home run record with 73 in 2001 and was the National League's most valuable player seven times.

Major league baseball Major league baseball