Pennsylvania Senate convicts high court judge.

• Position: Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Rolf Larsen

Pennsylvania closed a wrenching chapter in the history of its courts this fall when the Senate voted to remove a state Supreme Court justice from office. By a two-thirds vote, the Senate also barred the justice, Rolf Larsen, from ever again holding public office.

For nearly a decade, Larsen has been a symbol of what critics say is wrong with the Pennsylvania judiciary--that the popular election of judges leads to favoritism toward friends and campaign contributors; that court procedures, often shrouded in secrecy, make it impossible to scrutinize judges and justices for wrong doing.

Larsen became the first Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice ever impeached. Indeed, not since 1811 has the Legislature convicted and removed any Pennsylvania judge from office.

In May, the House voted 199-0 to impeach Larsen for "misbehavior in office" including lying under oath to a grand jury and giving preferential treatment to his friends and political supporters. (See State Legislatures, August 1994)

On a balmy evening in October, the Senate completed the process when it convicted Larsen on the most serious charge leveled against him by the House--improper contact with a Pittsburgh attorney in 1988. During a five-week trial before a special Senate Impeachment Committee, the attorney, Richard Gilardi, testified that he met with Larsen and that Larsen asked him to write "yes" or "no" on the cover sheets of two cases up for appeal so that the judge could know how Gilardi wanted the cases handled.

The impeachment trial tested the mettle of Pennsylvania lawmakers. Senator Stewart Greenleaf...