The article continues, pointing out how Fani made unforced errors in the case...
Georgia State University law professor Clark Cunningham, who previously
urged Willis to step aside, said the ruling showed why.
He said the matter raised “a risk of reversal of an eventual guilty verdict, especially if the court of appeals disagrees with McAfee.”
One potential avenue for defendants is pointing to Willis’s speech potentially prejudicing jurors. McAfee noted there wasn’t much case law upon which to base a decision, which could invite an appeals court to weigh in.
Emory University law professor Kamina A. Pinder said the ruling cast a “shadow” over Willis’s career. But Pinder noted that putting someone else on the case might harm the prosecution.
In the near term, the ruling probably means more delays, which would play into Trump’s hands with the election looming and uncertainty about whether he’ll face trial before Election Day in at least three of his four criminal cases. (The fourth is scheduled to begin later this month, but the prosecutor on Thursday
opened the door to a delay.)
If Willis’s office doesn’t want to try the case itself, she would be faced with finding a new special prosecutor to take it — which could prove difficult given the level of scrutiny faced by Willis and Wade. Any new attorneys would also need to be brought up to speed. And the ruling could be appealed.
There’s also the matter of how feasible it would be for Willis to step aside. McAfee indicated that even a finding of a conflict of interest wouldn’t necessarily disqualify Willis’s entire office. Some suggest that would allow her to hand the case off to a deputy. But it’s murky whether she could do that.
Practical concerns aside, experts largely agreed that Willis had done damage to her cause — that even if her conduct didn’t rise to the level of a conflict of interest, and even if she can continue, she played into the hands of her critics.
“This is a prime example of defense attorneys exploiting an unforced error by a prosecutor,” said Emory law professor John Felipe Acevedo...