(a) A person holding any public office who is convicted of a crime shall forfeit such office if: (1) he is convicted under the laws of this Territory of a felony or under the laws of another jurisdiction of a crime which, if committed within this Territory, would be a felony; or (2) he is convicted of a crime involving malfeasance in such office, or dishonesty. (b) The forfeiture provided in Subsection (a) shall take effect upon sentencing unless the sentencing court or an appellate court, for good cause shown, orders a stay of such forfeiture. If the conviction is reversed, the person shall be restored to his office with all the rights, emoluments and salary thereof from the date of forfeiture. SOURCE: See G.P.C. §§ 10, 68, 74, 96, 673; *M.P.C. § 306.2; *N.J. § 2C:51-2. COMMENT: § 82.15 is comparable to former § 673 of the Penal Code but predicates forfeiture on conviction of certain kinds of offenses, not on a term of sentencing imposed. Unlike former Penal Code §§ 68, 74 and 96, neither Section nor Code generally provides for permanent disqualification. Such a sanction is too harsh and inflexible; obviously, a prior conviction would greatly influence a decision to appoint or elect but it need not automatically disqualify. It should be noted that this Section does not necessarily supersede other sections of the Code, notably the 3 GCA § 8104 (disqualification for violation of campaign expenditure law), 4 GCA § 9103 (relative to dismissal for strikes against the Government) and 5 GCA § 22401(c) (relative to discretionary dismissal for illegal expenditure). However, 3 GCA § 6103 has been amended to exclude from disqualification for a legislative seat persons convicted of crimes. Note that 48 U.S.C. § 1423f lists as a disqualification for a Senator the following: A... or who has been convicted of a felony or of a crime involving moral turpitude and has not received a pardon restoring his civil rights.@ It is doubtful that the Organic Act would view this Chapter as sufficient to permit a convicted felon or a person convicted of other stated crimes, to sit in the Legislature.
COL03252013 2 INCIDENT TO CONVICTION OR IMPRISONMENT
2012 NOTE: P.L. 31-255:3(c)&(d) (Dec. 11, 2012) amended references to 3 GCA § 6105 and § 8129 [in the above “COMMENT”] changed to § 6103 and § 8104, respectively.