SAN FRANCISCO — It has been slightly more than nine years since prosecutors and grand jurors alike grilled a defiant Barry Bonds for hours about his relationship with performance enhancing drugs.

The Major League Baseball career leader in homeruns is asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to toss out his felony conviction. Bonds’ lawyers claim his answer was not material to the grand jury that was investigating the illegal distribution of performance-enhancing drugs.