New Hampshire's Senate opened its first-ever impeachment trial yesterday, to hear charges against State Supreme Court Chief Justice David Brock, who graduated from Dartmouth in 1958.
According to government professor Lynn Mather, the trial "is significant because it's the first impeachment trial before the Senate ever in the state of New Hampshire."
She said at this point in the proceedings it is hard to predict the outcome of the trial, but she noted that the Senate is "treating the issue quite seriously."
She explained that the Senate is paying close attention to certain procedural issues and is taking stricter stances towards evidence than have been taken in earlier stages of the case.
Twenty-two senators -- two others were disqualified for potential bias -- will act as jurors in the trial, which is expected to last between two and five weeks.
The trial began for the senators yesterday with a tour of the Supreme Court building, focusing on key locations that will come into play in the ensuing trial.
According to the Boston Globe report yesterday, defense lawyers will focus on the judge as a man, not a symbol, claiming that using Brock as a scapegoat for the wide-reaching problems of the court is unfair.
In pretrial hearings, a large majority of the Senate voted to require a two-thirds vote -- or 15 senators -- to convict Brock instead of a simple majority. The decision was based on the high stakes of the potential impeachment.
Mather said the fact that the Senate chose to confine itself to a two-thirds majority is one example of the new stricter rules governing this case.
The Senate also decided that less extreme penalties than removal from office could be imposed if Brock is convicted. But they refused to dismiss any of the four articles of impeachment against Brock -- a move that his attorneys advocated.
The biggest difference between the Senate impeachment trial and the House trial that preceded it is that while the House trial was completely one sided, the Senate trial will allow Brock to call on defense witnesses.
Six of Brock's witnesses will be prominent justices from around the country.
"I think it does help Brock," Mather said, explaining that well-respected justices testifying in Brock's defense will support Brock's cause. She said the justices' testimony is expected to prove that the alleged guilt is only a product of a few small lapses in the context of a long, distinguished career.
Brock's lawyers and state officials alike say that this trial will set precedents for years to come since it is the first trial of its kind to occur in New Hampshire's history.
The impeachment trial -- which could lead to Brock's removal from office -- is based on charges that the Chief Justice lied to House investigators during his trial there, made an improper call to a lower-court judge in a 1987 case and solicited input from former Associate Justice Stephen Thayer about Thayer's divorce case.
Brock also allegedly allowed judges to lend input on cases from which they were disqualified for conflicts of interest.
The impeachment case stemmed out of a February 2000 incident when Brock allegedly told Thayer and the other court justices that he had chosen George Papagianis to replace Thayer in his messy divorce case that had been appealed to the Supreme Court. When Thayer vocally objected to the appointment, Brock allegedly requested that Court Clerk Howard Zibel -- who had already informed Papagianis of the appointment -- slow down the appointment.
Zibel saw this instruction as a conflict of interest and sent a memorandum to State Attorney General Philip McLaughlin, which prompted a secret five-week probe into the Supreme Court.
The final report, released March 31, brought four justices -- Brock, Thayer, Sherman Horton '53 and John Broderick -- into question. Thayer resigned from office the day the report was released, but his lawyers claimed that had he remained in office, he would have been vindicated of all charges.
The House of Representatives voted not to hold impeachment trials for Horton and Broderick in June, proceeding only on the Brock case.
The House voted overwhelmingly to impeach Brock in July -- the second time such a decision has been reached in the state's history. The last time the New Hampshire House impeached a justice was in the 1700s, but he resigned before the case went to Senate.
