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IMPEACHMENT (O. Fr. empeahement, empeschement, from em pecher or empescher, to hinder, See also: English See also: form of judicial See also: parliamentary procedure against criminals, in which the See also: House of See also: Commons are the prosecutors and the House of Lords the See also: judges
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It differs from bills of attainder (q.v.) in being strictly judicial
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'When the House of Commons has accepted a motion for impeach-merit; the mover is ordered to proceed to the See also: bar of the House of Lords, and there impeach the accused " in the name of the House of Commons, and of all the Commons of the See also: United See also: Kingdom." The charges are formulated in articles, to each of which the accused may deliver a written answer
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The See also: prosecution must confine itself to the charges contained in the articles, though further articles may be adhibited from See also: time to time
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The Commons appoint managers to conduct the prosecution, but the whole House in committee attends the trial
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The See also: defendant may appear by counsel
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The president of the House of Lords is the See also: lord high steward, in the See also: case of peers impeached for high treason; in other cases the lord chancellor
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The hearing takes place as in an ordinary trial, the defence being allowed to See also: call witnesses if necessary, and the prosecution having a right of reply
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At the end of the case the president " puts to each peer, beginning with the junior baron, the' questions upon the first article, whether the accused be guilty of the crimes charged therein
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Each peer in succession rises in his place when the question is put, and See also: standing uncovered, and laying his right See also: hand upon his breast, answers, ` Guilty' or ` Not guilty,' as the case may be, ` upon my honour.' Each article is proceeded with separately in the same manner, the lord high steward giving his own opinion the last " (May's Parliamentary Practice, c. See also: xxiii.)
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Should the accused be found guilty, See also: judgment follows if the Commons move for it, but not otherwise
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The Commons thus retain the power of See also: pardon in their own hands, and this right they have in several cases expressly claimed by See also: resolution, declaring that it is not parliamentary for their lordships to give judgment " until the same be first demanded by this House." Spiritual peers occupy an anomalous position in the trial of peers, as not being themselves ennobled in See also: blood; on the impeachment of See also: Danby it was declared by the Lords that Spiritual peers have the right to stay and sit during proceedings for impeachment, but it is customary for them to withdraw before judgment is given, entering a protest " saving to themselves and their successors all such rights in judicature as they have by See also: law, and by right ought to have." An impeachment, unlike other parliamentary proceedings, is not interrupted by See also: prorogation, nor even by dissolution
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Proceedings in the House of Commons preliminary to an impeachment are subject to the ordinary rules, and in the See also: Warren Hastings case an See also: act was passed to prevent the preliminary proceedings from discontinuance by prorogation and dissolution
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A royal pardon cannot be pleaded in bar of an impeachment, though it is within the royal See also: prerogative to pardon after the lords have pronounced judgment
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The point was raised in the case of the See also: earl of Danby in 1679, and the See also: rule was finally settled by the Act of See also: Settlement
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Persons found guilty on impeachment may be reprieved or pardoned like other convicts
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Impeachment will lie against all kinds of crimes and misdemeanours, and against offenders of all ranks
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In the case of See also: Simon de See also: Beresford, tried before the House of Lords in 1330, the House declared "that the judgment be not See also: drawn into example or consequence in time to come, whereby the said peers may be charged hereafter to See also: judge others than their peers," from which See also: Blackstone and others have inf erred that " a commoner cannot be impeached before the Lords for any capital offence, but only for high misdemeanours." In the case of See also: Edward Fitzharris in 1681, the House of Commons in answer to a resolution of the Lords suspending the impeachment, declared it to be their undoubted right " to impeach any peer or commoner for treason or any other See also: crime or misdemeanour." And the House of Lords has in practice recognized the right of the Commons to impeach whomsoever they will
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The procedure has, however, been reserved for See also: great See also: political offenders whom the ordinary See also: powers of the law might fail to reach
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It has now fallen into desuetude
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The last impeachments were those of Warren Hastings (1788—1795) and Lord See also: Melville (1806), but an unsuccessful attempt was made by See also: Thomas C
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See also: Anstey to impeach Lord Palmerston in 1848
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The earliest recorded instances of impeachment are those of Lord See also: Latimer in 1376 and of See also: Pole, earl of See also: Suffolk, in 1386
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From the time of Edward IV. to See also: Elizabeth it
See also: fell into disuse, " partly," says See also: Hallam, " from the loss
of that control which the Commons had obtained under See also: Richard II. and the Lancastrian See also: kings, and partly from the preference the Tudor princes had given to bills of attainder or pains and penalties when they wished to turn the arm of parliament against an obnoxious subject." Revived in the reign of See also: James I., it became an instrument of parliamentary resistance to the
See also: crown, and it was not unfrequently resorted to in the first three reigns after the Revolution
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In the United States the procedure of impeachment both in the See also: national and in almost all of the See also: state governments is very similar to that described above
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The national constitution prescribes that the House of Representatives " shall have the See also: sole power of impeachment " and that " the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments." The House appoints managers to conduct the prosecution at the bar of the Senate, and the See also: vote of the Senate is taken by putting the question separately to each member, who, during the trial, must be on See also: oath or affirmation
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In ordinary cases the president or president See also: pro tempore of the Senate presides, but when the president of the United States is on trial the presiding officer must be the chief See also: justice of the United States Supreme See also: Court
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A two-thirds vote is necessary for conviction
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The president, See also: vice-president or any See also: civil officer of the United States may be impeached for " treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanours," and if convicted, is re-moved from office and may be disqualified for holding any office under the See also: government in future
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The officer after removal is also " liable and subject to See also: indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law." The See also: term " civil See also: officers of the United States " has been construed as being inapplicable to members of the Senate and the House of Representatives
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The president's pardoning power does not extend to officers convicted, on impeachment, of offences against the United States
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Since the organization of the Federal government there have been only eight impeachment trials before the United States Senate, and of these only two—the trials of Judge See also: John Pickering, a Federal
See also: District judge for the District of New Hampshire, in 1803, on a See also: charge of making decisions contrary to law and of See also: drunkenness and See also: profanity on the bench, and of Judge W
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H
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Humphreys, Judge of the Federal District Court of See also: Tennessee, in 1863, on a charge of making a See also: secession speech and of accepting a judicial position under the Confederate Government—resulted in convictions
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The two most famous cases are those of Justice See also: Samuel See also: Chase of the United States Supreme Court in 18o5, and of President Andrew See also: Johnson, the only chief of the executive who has been impeached, in 1868
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There is a conflict of opinion with regard to the power of the House to impeach a Federal officer who has resigned his office, and also with regard to the-kind of offences for which an officer can be impeached, some authorities maintaining that only indictable offences warrant impeachment, and others that impeachment is warranted by any act highly prejudicial to the public welfare or subversive of any essential principle of government
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The latter view was adopted by the House of Representatives when it impeached President Johnson . |
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