diff -r ed76eac4491e Doc/library/socketserver.rst
--- a/Doc/library/socketserver.rst	Sun Sep 30 21:07:56 2012 -0700
+++ b/Doc/library/socketserver.rst	Fri Oct 05 10:22:54 2012 +0000
@@ -306,8 +306,8 @@
 .. method:: RequestHandler.finish()
 
    Called after the :meth:`handle` method to perform any clean-up actions
-   required.  The default implementation does nothing.  If :meth:`setup` or
-   :meth:`handle` raise an exception, this function will not be called.
+   required.  The default implementation does nothing.  If :meth:`setup`
+   raises an exception, this function will not be called.
 
 
 .. method:: RequestHandler.handle()
diff -r ed76eac4491e Lib/SocketServer.py
--- a/Lib/SocketServer.py	Sun Sep 30 21:07:56 2012 -0700
+++ b/Lib/SocketServer.py	Fri Oct 05 10:22:54 2012 +0000
@@ -701,7 +701,12 @@
 
     def finish(self):
         if not self.wfile.closed:
-            self.wfile.flush()
+            try:
+                self.wfile.flush()
+            except socket.error:
+                # An final socket error may have occur here, such as
+                # the local error ECONNABORTED.
+                pass
         self.wfile.close()
         self.rfile.close()