Report of the Trial by Impeachment of James Prescott, Judge of the Probate of Wills, &c. for the County of Middlesex for Misconduct and Maladministration in Office, Before the Senate of Massachusetts in the Year 1821: With an Appendix, Containing an Account of Former Impeachments in the Same State

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Office of the Daily Advertiser, 1821 - Trials (Impeachment) - 225 pages

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Page 109 - The senate shall be a court with full authority to hear and determine all impeachments made by the house of representatives, against any officer or officers of the commonwealth, for misconduct and mal-administration in their offices.
Page 122 - And no subject shall be arrested, imprisoned, despoiled, or deprived of his property immunities, or privileges, put out of the protection of the law, exiled, or deprived of his life, liberty, or estate, but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land.
Page 131 - THE Judges of Probate of Wills, and for granting letters of administration, shall hold their courts at such place or places, on fixed days, as the convenience of the people shall require. And the Legislature shall, from time to time, hereafter appoint such times and places...
Page 115 - But previous to the trial of every impeachment the members of the senate shall respectively be sworn, truly and impartially to try and determine the charge in question, according to evidence.
Page 111 - This trial, though it varies in external ceremony, yet differs not in essentials from criminal prosecutions before inferior courts. The same rules of evidence, the same legal notions of crimes and punishments, prevailed; for impeachments are not framed to alter the law, but to carry it into more effectual execution against too powerful delinquents.
Page 126 - A crime, or misdemeanor, is an act committed or omitted in violation of a public law, either forbidding or commanding it.
Page 179 - Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.
Page 126 - First, that every information or indictment must contain such a description of the crime that the defendant may know what crime it is which he is called upon to answer. "Secondly, that the jury may appear to be warranted in their conclusion of guilty or not guilty.
Page 178 - Nor do I remind you that your judgment is to be rejudged by the community ; and as you have summoned him for trial to this high tribunal, you are soon to descend yourselves from these seats of justice, and stand before the higher tribunal of the world. I would not fail so much in respect to this honorable court, as to hint that it could pronounce a sentence, which the community will reverse. No, sir, it is not the world's revision...
Page 114 - All the laws which have heretofore been adopted, used and approved in the Province, Colony or State of Massachusetts Bay, and usually practised on in the courts of law, shall still remain and be in full force, until altered or repealed by the legislature; such parts only excepted as are repugnant to the rights and liberties contained in this constitution.

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