Andrew Cohen has an article at The Atlantic about a case that was in the news several months ago. (Earlier coverage can be found at Professional Responsibility Blog, by Alberto Bernabe.) The Ninth Circuit en banc oral argument is here. At about 9:00 there is a nice discussion about how sandbagging works in both directions. [This post has been updated since original posting.] Excerpt:
A few years ago, federal prosecutors in San Diego convinced a jury to convict John Maloney of the felony charge of "knowing possession of marijuana with intent to distribute." The feds did so by cheating during the closing argument of the trial. During the rebuttal part of their closing argument to jurors, when they knew that neither Maloney nor his attorney could respond, prosecutors suggested at length that the defendant must have lied about his trip because he had no luggage with him.
The inference during the closing argument was clear. If Maloney was lying about the trip, if he had no luggage with him, than he must have "known" that he had the marijuana in question and thus was guilty of the crime with which he was charged. That's what the jury found, anyway, and it's what the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals initially found as well. The problem was: there was no evidence introduced at trial, either way, about Maloney's luggage on that trip. And prosecutors knew it.