Senate impeachment begins against alum
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.