"For Barry Bonds' jury, it can't be an easy call.

They've been asked to sort out a fiercely contested legal fight in which the evidence - depending on how it's viewed - could support either an outright exoneration or a cascade of guilty verdicts.

If the jury is offended by the idea of federal law enforcement policing the use of performance-enhancing drugs in elite sports, the trial could end in acquittal.

But if the jury starts to dig into the evidence - especially the testimony of a personal shopper who says she saw Bonds being injected by his trainer - baseball's home run champion could wind up being convicted of a felony.

Those are some of the views expressed in a California Watch survey of legal experts who are tracking Bonds' trial on perjury charges in federal court in San Francisco.

"This case is ending as it began," said San Francisco lawyer William Keane, who represented Olympic track coach Trevor Graham in a case that parallels that of Bonds.

It's "too close to call, with the jury having its work cut out for it," he said.

The former Giants slugger is accused of lying under oath and obstructing justice in connection with his testimony before the federal grand jury that probed the BALCO steroids scandal in 2003. Bonds said he had never knowingly used banned drugs, and denied that he had been provided with designer steroids from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in Burlingame."