diff -r 19ed42e84030 Lib/subprocess.py
--- a/Lib/subprocess.py	Thu Oct 25 10:47:46 2012 +0100
+++ b/Lib/subprocess.py	Sun Oct 28 18:31:32 2012 -0700
@@ -824,6 +824,21 @@
                 except EnvironmentError:
                     # Ignore EBADF or other errors
                     pass
+
+            # make sure the child pipes are closed as well
+            to_close = []
+            if stdin == PIPE:
+                to_close.append(p2cread)
+            if stdout == PIPE:
+                to_close.append(c2pwrite)
+            if stderr == PIPE:
+                to_close.append(errwrite)
+            for fd in to_close:
+                try:
+                    os.close(fd)
+                except OSError:
+                    pass
+
             raise
 
 
diff -r 19ed42e84030 Lib/test/test_subprocess.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_subprocess.py	Thu Oct 25 10:47:46 2012 +0100
+++ b/Lib/test/test_subprocess.py	Sun Oct 28 18:31:32 2012 -0700
@@ -68,6 +68,24 @@
         self.assertEqual(actual, expected, msg)
 
 
+class PopenTestException(Exception):
+    pass
+
+
+class PopenExecuteChildRaises(subprocess.Popen):
+    """ POpen subclass for testing cleanup of subprocess.PIPE filehandles when
+    _execute_child fails 
+    """
+    def _execute_child(self, args, executable, preexec_fn, close_fds,
+                       pass_fds, cwd, env,
+                       startupinfo, creationflags, shell,
+                       p2cread, p2cwrite,
+                       c2pread, c2pwrite,
+                       errread, errwrite,
+                       restore_signals, start_new_session):
+        raise PopenTestException("Forced Exception for Test")
+
+
 class ProcessTestCase(BaseTestCase):
 
     def test_call_seq(self):
@@ -995,6 +1013,23 @@
                 process.communicate()
 
 
+    # This test is Linux specific for simplicity to at least have
+    # some coverage.  It is not a platform specific bug.
+    @unittest.skipUnless(os.path.isdir('/proc/%d/fd' % os.getpid()),
+                         "Linux specific")
+    # Test for the fd leak reported in http://bugs.python.org/issue16327
+    def test_failed_child_execute_fd_leak(self):
+        fd_directory = '/proc/%d/fd' % os.getpid()
+        num_fds_before_popen = len(os.listdir(fd_directory))
+        with self.assertRaises(PopenTestException):
+            PopenExecuteChildRaises(
+                    [sys.executable, "-c", "print()"], stdin=subprocess.PIPE,
+                    stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
+
+        num_fds_after_exception = len(os.listdir(fd_directory))
+        self.assertEqual(num_fds_before_popen, num_fds_after_exception)
+
+
 # context manager
 class _SuppressCoreFiles(object):
     """Try to prevent core files from being created."""