“When Prosecutors Admit to Cheating:  Federal attorneys in San Diego knew they had gotten an unfair conviction.  And to their immense credit, they asked an appeals court to make things right.”

Andrew Cohen has this essay online at The Atlantic.  It says, in part, “Last fall, during oral argument (the video of which you can watch here), members of the federal appeals court bluntly urged Duffy over and over again to admit that the closing argument in the Maloney case was unprofessional, and perhaps unethical, and in any event a mistake of law.”

But, if you think everyone agrees with Mr. Cohen’s essay, think again.  Will Baude at The Volokh Conspiracy has a post critical of what he describes as the Ninth Circuit’s berating of an assistant US Attorney at oral argument into confessing error.  He notes that the court, contrary to his expectations, did write an opinion detailing the alleged wrongdoing, but notes that the court never actually says that the conduct was wrongful, and that the opinion will have no precedential effect.