House Panel Moves to Impeach Judge Serving Prison Sentence

WASHINGTON — A House committee acted Tuesday to impeach federal Judge Walter L. Nixon of Mississippi before he is released from federal prison and returns to the District Court to hear cases.

“I believe that Judge Nixon should have had the good grace to resign when his appeals were exhausted,” Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) said as the Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment, 34 to 0.

The full House is planning floor action on the articles of impeachment this week. If they are approved, Nixon would stand impeached and be tried later by the Senate with House members acting as prosecutors.

The Senate is currently preparing to hear evidence in the trial of Judge Alcee L. Hastings of Florida, who was impeached by the House last year even though he was acquitted in 1983 of plotting to obtain payoffs.

The articles accuse Nixon of lying to a federal grand jury and Justice Department investigators looking into the oil and gas investment that was arranged for him by a wealthy businessman, Wiley Fairchild.

Nixon is accused of bringing the federal judiciary into disrepute and undermining its integrity by claiming he never played a role in a case involving marijuana smuggling charges against Fairchild’s son.

He is serving two concurrent five-year perjury sentences imposed after he was convicted in 1986. Since then, he has collected $286,000 in federal judicial salary and he plans, when he is released in a few months, to return to the bench and try cases, according to authorities.