“There appears to be no law or regulation that prevents the Saipan Memorial Leadership Courtyard general committee from inducting a person convicted of a crime after they have served office,” Attorney General Edward Buckingham said.
“Provided that person otherwise meets the induction criteria and if the committee wishers to do so,” he added.
The committee sought the AG’s legal opinion.
In a letter to Ike Demapan, Office of Indigenous Affairs resident executive director and acting chairman of the leadership courtyard credentials committee, Buckingham said a review of commonwealth law and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the federal program that funds, in part, the project, indicates there’s no law that prevents the committee to exclude any official convicted of a crime.
Buckingham said if the committee is concerned about whether any particular person may be inducted, they should provide his office with the name of the person and the relevant information regarding the conviction.
Ramon B. Camacho, Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council chairman, said he agrees with the AG.
He cited the example of President Richard Nixon who resigned in 1974 before he could be impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives over the Watergate scandal.
“We can see his pictures all over Washington and there’s a public library dedicated in his honor,” Camacho said.
