Rodino Calls for Ouster of Convicted U.S. District Judge

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee introduced a resolution Thursday calling for the impeachment of Walter Nixon Jr., a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Mississippi who is scheduled to report to prison next week.

Rep. Peter W. Rodino Jr. (D-N.J.) said in a statement that Congress should begin impeachment proceedings because Nixon has refused to step down after his February, 1986, conviction on two counts of lying to a federal grand jury about a drug investigation.

Rodino said the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policy-making body of the federal judiciary, has certified to House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) that Nixon engaged in conduct that might constitute one or more grounds for impeachment.

Nixon’s last appeal of his conviction was turned down by the Supreme Court on Jan. 19. Since his indictment, he has stopped hearing cases but has refused to step down and continues to draw an annual salary of $89,500.

Nixon, 59, was convicted on Feb. 9, 1986, on two counts of perjury arising from his testimony during a grand jury investigation of a Hattiesburg, Miss., drug smuggling case. He was sentenced to five years in prison.