I've heard this before, but have not seen a reasonable argument as to why they are a failure.  Last time this was discussed a link to a blog was provided, with lots of discussion there - which as far as I could tell boiled down to 'catching exceptions is ugly, and people just do the wrong thing anyway which is ugly when you have checked exceptions.'

I am unlucky enough to write Java all day, and from my standpoint checked exceptions are a huge win.  There are certain edges which can catch you, but they are immensely useful in developing robust programs.  Basically checked exceptions -> recoverable problems, unchecked -> unrecoverable/programming errors (like asserts or memory errors).

Note I am not advocating adding checked exceptions to D (though I would like it).  Point is to acknowledge that there are different kinds of exceptions, and an exception for one part of the code may not be a problem for the bit that invokes it.