newsobserver.com projects - James Carter - Comments

Re: Who has been expelled from the legislature?

Isaac136 — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:53:54 -0400

The burden of proof for a member to be expelled should not rise to the level of criminal conviction, for godsakes.

The standard for criminal conviction is what it is because what that person stands to lose is life or liberty. We're talking about tolerable behavior, here, folks, not whether or not s/he raped or murdered.

Conviction of a civil offense is not as perilous, but certainly a person could lose his/her life-savings.

What we're talking about is whether a person is permitted to flout his oath of office by the body before which he swore. This is not a hard call, folks.

Re: Who has been expelled from the legislature?

bkrueger — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:21:55 -0400

A quick scan of the links above indicates that at least Turner, Thorne, Potter, Roberts and Brown were expelled without having been convicted of a crime.

It looks like Gilbert was expelled and then cleared of criminal charges.

Then there's Clary, who was convicted, then elected, then resigned, then re-elected and then expelled.

Re: Who has been expelled from the legislature?

cicero01 — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:50:20 -0400

Embezzlement, theft, fraud, libel, pay scandals: these sound like good grounds to expell someone. Question is: was the General Assembly's expulsion before or after the legislator was convicted of these crimes? This is the key question.