United States v. Mirra

EDELSTEIN, District Judge.

In an incident that has become one of several causes celebres of a trial frequented by scenes of “outrage * * disruption [and] violence in the courtroom,” 1 the defendant Anthony Mirra, while under cross-examination, “stood up, took the witness chair on which he was sitting, and hurled it at the Assist ant United States Attorney * * * threw it some fifteen feet.” 2 The chair struck the jury rail about three feet from the lectern where the Assistant United States Attorney was standing. For committing such a violent outrage upon the dignity and decorum of the court,…