House Votes Impeachment of Federal Judge in Florida

The House, invoking its impeachment power for only the 15th time in history, Wednesday accused Judge Alcee L. Hastings of Miami of “high crimes and misdemeanors” and ordered his trial by the Senate on bribery and perjury charges that could result in his removal from the federal bench.

The impeachment resolution was approved by a vote of 413 to 3, with four abstentions, in a dramatic show of support for the House Judiciary Committee and the floor manager of the bill, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), who once voiced misgivings that Hastings was a victim of political harassment or racial bias.

In Miami, Hastings said he would not step down from his $89,500-a-year post and termed the House action “a dark day for myself and the judicial process,” adding: “The vote today, in my humble opinion, is a disgrace. Many Congress persons voted with no knowledge of the voluminous record that has taken seven years to compile.”

Predicts Acquittal

Downplaying his former assertions that he was a victim of racial bias, Hastings, who is black, said the main issue was fairness and predicted that he would be acquitted by the Senate in a trial that may be delayed until next year.

Conyers, who also is black, said he found no trace of racism during the yearlong investigation and urged his colleagues to vote in favor of the rarely used process for removal of federal officials who Congress formally decrees are unfit to serve.

“Race should never disqualify a person for federal office,” Conyers told the House, “but race should never insulate a person from the consequences of unlawful conduct.”

Hastings, 51, an outspoken advocate of civil rights causes, was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as the first black jurist on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and was sworn in on Oct. 22, 1979. The bribery plot in which he is accused allegedly took place less than two years later, in 1981.

In the House debate, Hastings had no defenders. Even Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.), who counts Hastings as a friend of 20 years, as well as a constituent, said he would vote “present” on the issue.

Dissenting Votes

The only dissenting votes were cast by Reps. Mervin M. Dymally (D-Compton), Gus Savage (D-Ill.) and Edward R. Roybal (D-Los Angeles). Others who voted present were Reps. Henry B. Gonzalez (D-Tex.), William D. Ford (D-Mich.) and Joseph D. Early (D-Mass.).

Although he declined to testify at House hearings last summer, Hastings later denounced the impeachment vote by the Judiciary Committee as “a trashing of the jury system, the undermining of the U.S. Constitution and a severe thrust at the heart of judicial independence.”

Although Hastings was acquitted by a federal jury in 1983 of conspiring to accept a bribe in return for favorable treatment of two defendants in his court, Conyers said, there was “damning evidence” that the judge lied at his trial and plotted with a Washington lawyer, William A. Borders, to receive a $150,000 payoff. In a separate trial in 1982, Borders was convicted of the same bribery-conspiracy charges.

Despite the acquittal, two federal judges filed formal charges of misconduct against Hastings with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, and a new investigation conducted by John Doar, former assistant attorney general in charge of the civil rights division, concluded that Hastings tried to get a bribe and then covered up his actions during the trial by faking evidence and testifying falsely under oath.

The judge also was accused of compromising three FBI undercover investigations by leaking information about wiretaps he had secretly approved. A report of the investigation was sent to the Judicial Conference of the United States, which sent the results to Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) with its finding that impeachment might be warranted.

Black Jurist Advocate

The Hastings case was assigned to Conyers, the fifth-ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and one of only two black members of the panel. Conyers has been a leading advocate of appointing more black jurists to federal trial and appellate courts.

“I looked for any scintilla of racism,” Conyers assured his colleagues. “I could not find any.”

Since the adoption of the Constitution in 1787, only 14 other federal officials have been impeached by the House, roughly equivalent to an indictment in a criminal trial.

The last impeachment, voted by the House in 1986, involved Harry E. Claiborne, a U.S. District Court judge from Nevada, who was previously convicted in a federal court for filing fraudulent tax returns. The Senate agreed with the House, found Claiborne guilty and removed him from office in the first impeachment trial in 50 years.