Former Mo. congressman Hungate dies

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- William Hungate, a former federal judge and Missouri congressman who introduced an article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, died Friday at age 84, his family said.

Hungate, who was living in the St. Louis suburb of Town and Country, suffered complications from a June 6 surgery after he had a blood clot to the brain, they said.

The Democrat represented Missouri's 9th District from November of 1964 to January of 1977.

He was the Chair of the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on criminal justice, which investigated the presidential pardon of Nixon by his successor, President Gerald Ford. It the only congressional committee in which a sitting president appeared and gave sworn testimony.

Hungate served as a federal judge for the U.S. District Court in St. Louis from 1979 to 1992. During his tenure, he approved the consent decree for the voluntary school-desegregation plan in 1983 that allows black students from the city to attend suburban school districts.