"Barry Bonds' lawyers asked a federal judge Wednesday to overturn his obstruction-of-justice conviction for testifying evasively to a grand jury about drug injections, arguing that jurors used an out-of-context statement to find him guilty of something that wasn't even a crime.

A federal jury deadlocked April 13 on three perjury charges against the former Giants ballplayer based on his 2003 grand jury testimony that he had never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs or received injections from anyone but his physician.

But jurors convicted him of obstruction for a rambling response to a question about whether his trainer ever gave him injectable drugs.

Bonds' answer discussed his friendship with his trainer, Greg Anderson, and his own life as a "celebrity child with a famous father," former Giants outfielder Bobby Bonds, but never referred to drugs. Anderson refused to testify against Bonds and has spent more than a year in jail for contempt of court.

The jury found the home run champion had given an evasive answer in an attempt to interfere with the grand jury's investigation of steroids use in sports."