Nation : House Panel Calls for Impeachment of Imprisoned U.S. Judge Nixon
A House panel called today for the impeachment of imprisoned U.S. District Judge Walter Nixon of Mississippi, who has collected $286,000 in pay since his 1986 perjury trial and is planning to return to the bench within months.
“His pattern of lies and deceit led . . . to the inevitable conclusion that he has to be impeached,” Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose) said as the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment, 34 to 0.
Floor action by the full House on the move to impeach the Mississippi jurist could come as early as Wednesday.
Nixon stands accused of lying to a federal grand jury and Justice Department investigators and bringing the judiciary into disrepute.
The case centers on an oil and gas investment arranged for Nixon by a wealthy businessman and Nixon’s intervention in marijuana smuggling charges against the man’s son. Nixon was sentenced in 1986 to two concurrent five-year sentences for perjury after denying involvement in the marijuana case.
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