Walter Nixon
{{Short description|American judge (born 1928)}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=December 2019}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Walter Nixon
|image = Walternixon.jpg
|office = Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi
|term_start = September 24, 1982
|term_end = November 3, 1989
|predecessor = Dan Monroe Russell Jr.
|successor = William H. Barbour Jr.
|office1 = Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi
|appointer1 = Lyndon B. Johnson
|term_start1 = June 7, 1968
|term_end1 = November 3, 1989
|predecessor1 = Seat established
|successor1 = Charles W. Pickering
|birth_name = Walter Louis Nixon Jr.
|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1928|12|16}}
|birth_place = Biloxi, Mississippi, U.S.
|death_date =
|death_place =
|education = Tulane University (JD)
}}
Walter Louis Nixon Jr. (born December 16, 1928){{cite book |title=Judge Walter L. Nixon, Jr., Impeachment Inquiry Transcript of Proceedings, U.S.A. V. Walter L. Nixon, Jr., Criminal Action No. H85-00012(L) |publisher=United States Government Publishing Office |year=1989 |location=Washington, D.C. |page=1447 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EuAU0J66KegC&q=Walter+Nixon+December+16}} is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi who in 1989 was impeached by the House of Representatives and removed from office by the Senate.{{FJC Bio|1772|nid=1385771|name=Walter Louis Nixon Jr.}} Because Nixon's impeachment was for perjury, the case was cited as a precedent in the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton.[http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/sd106-3.html Impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton, evidentiary record].{{failed verification|date=June 2009}}{{cite news
|author = Jeffrey, Terence P.
| title = Nixon's the one--That's Walter not Dick
| newspaper = Human Events
| date = 1998-10-09
| url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_199810/ai_n8823847/
| accessdate = 2009-06-15
}}
Education and career
Born in 1928, in Biloxi, Mississippi, Nixon received a Juris Doctor in 1951 from Tulane University Law School. He entered private practice in Biloxi from 1952 to 1968, interrupted by service in the United States Air Force from 1953 to 1955.
Federal judicial service
Nixon was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson on May 29, 1968, to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, to a new seat authorized by 80 Stat. 75. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 6, 1968, and received his commission on June 7, 1968. He served as Chief Judge from 1982 to 1989. His service terminated on November 3, 1989, due to his impeachment and conviction.
Impeachment
Nixon was convicted in 1986 on perjury charges and sentenced to 5 years in prison. The offense stemmed from his grand jury testimony and statements to federal officers concerning his intervention in the state drug prosecution of Drew Fairchild, the son of Wiley Fairchild, a business partner of Nixon. Although the case was assigned to a state court, Wiley Fairchild had asked Nixon to help out by speaking to the prosecutor. Nixon did so, and the prosecutor, a long-time friend, dropped the case. When Nixon was interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the United States Department of Justice, he denied any involvement whatsoever. Subsequently, a federal grand jury was empaneled and he again denied his involvement. He was convicted of making false statements to a grand jury. In 1989, he was impeached unanimously by the United States House of Representatives, becoming the second of only three unanimous impeachment votes, the others being Harry E. Claiborne and Thomas Porteous, and convicted by the Senate, for committing perjury before a grand jury. Upon his conviction by the Senate, he was removed from office.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/04/us/senate-convicts-us-judge-removing-him-from-bench.html|title=Senate Convicts U.S. Judge, Removing Him From Bench|first=Neil A. Lewis and Special To the New York|last=Times|website=The New York Times |date=4 November 1989 |publisher=}}
| class="wikitable" |
| scope="col" | Article
! scope="col" | Guilty ! scope="col" | Not guilty ! scope="col" | Result |
|---|
| scope="row" | Article I
| align="center" | 89 | align="center" | 8 | Convicted |
| scope="row" | Article II
| align="center" | 78 | align="center" | 19 | Convicted |
| scope="row" | Article III
| align="center" | 57 | align="center" | 40 | Acquitted |
Nixon appealed his impeachment and removal to the United States Supreme Court. In Nixon v. United States, handed down in 1993, the Court rejected his appeal as a nonjusticiable political question.{{ussc|name=Nixon v. United States|506|224|1993}}. He returned to private practice in Mississippi from 1993 to 1998. He has practiced law in Lake Charles, Louisiana since 1998.
See also
{{Portal|Biography}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- [http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/cooper.htm Testimony of Charles J. Cooper before the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, November 9, 1998]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721230926/http://www.lsba.org/2007MembershipDirectory/MemberDetails.asp?ID=642864&Menu=MD Louisiana State Bar directory]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20081220001816/http://www.msbar.org/lawyerdirectory_by_last.php?first_letter=N Mississippi Bar directory]
{{s-start}}
{{s-legal}}
{{s-new|seat}}
{{s-ttl|title=Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi|years=1968–1989}}
{{s-aft|after=Charles W. Pickering}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=Dan Monroe Russell Jr.}}
{{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi}}|years=1982–1989}}
{{s-aft|after=William H. Barbour Jr.}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nixon, Walter}}
Category:Disbarred American lawyers
Category:Impeached United States federal judges removed from office
Category:Judges convicted of crimes
Category:American people convicted of making false statements
Category:American people convicted of perjury
Category:Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi
Category:Military personnel from Mississippi
Category:Mississippi politicians convicted of crimes
Category:People from Biloxi, Mississippi
Category:Tulane University Law School alumni
Category:United States district court judges appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson
Category:Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government