But most trial lawyers and other experts interviewed today said the prosecution had made a careless mistake, and some attributed it to simple incompetence.

Organizations, both governmental and nongovernmental, have tremendous capability to do harm through malice, greed or simple incompetence; every day's newspaper gives new proof of that.

I think he created a climate in which fraud and embezzlement and simple incompetence could thrive on the margins of his own intent.

A lot of Facebook's missteps reek of simple incompetence.

And I think it would be foolish to assume the reason is simple incompetence.

Of course, for any public official not to understand how the American people think on this issue doesn't so much show insensitivity to the rights of women to choose, as simple incompetence.

"This is just incompetence, plain and simple," said Doug Lasdon, executive director of the Legal Action Center for the Homeless.

Mr. Krueger, a forgiving soul, believes that the report was botched through simple incompetence.

Other sightings may have been of actual land, wrongly located through observational errors due to chronometer failure, bad weather or simple incompetence.

Separating malice from simple incompetence was never easy.