Convicting Boeing for Its Deadly Crime Becomes Simple Under the “Judicial Admission” Doctrine
Last week, I blogged about how Boeing had confessed to committing a deadly conspiracy crime connected with the two 737 MAX crashes and should now plead guilty to the charge pending against it. In that earlier post, I argued that Boeing’s concessions in a statement of facts (connected with an earlier deferred prosecution agreement) constituted a “confession” that would greatly simplify the Government’s task at trial. An alert reader has passed along an interesting argument that I failed to consider … which further strengthens my position.
Under the “judicial admission” doctrine, some issues can be withdrawn from consideration in a case. As the Tenth Circuit recently summarized (United States v. Gallegos, 111 F.4th 1068, 1076 (10th Cir. 2024)), a judicial admission is an “express waiver made … by the party or his attorney conceding for the purposes of the trial the truth of some alleged fact.” Standard Fire Ins. Co. v. Knowles, 568 U.S. 588, 592 (2013) (quoting 9 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 2588 (J. Chadbourn rev. 1981)). Such admissions “include ‘formal concessions in the pleadings’ and ‘a
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