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Man throws chair at judge after hearing sentence

The judge didn't even flinch.

 

Ned Donovan

Internet Culture

Posted on Nov 22, 2014   Updated on May 30, 2021, 3:49 am CDT

Tempers can often flare in courtrooms, especially if one party isn’t happy with a result. One Dutch judge had a problem after sentencing a man who had been accused of killing three people.

One of the people in the public audience was the father of a 2-year-old girl, who, along with her grandparents, died in a car crash when the accused was traveling far above the speed limit.

The judge sentenced the accused to 120 hours community service. After the verdict, the aggrieved father threw a chair at the judge, who didn’t seem to even flinch. As a result, the man was taken out of the room by court security.

According to discussions about the video, Dutch sentences are focused on rehabilitation and, as a result, are less punishing than those in countries like the U.S. 

That prospect, however, didn’t seem to please the young girl’s father.

Photo via Phil Roeder/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

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*First Published: Nov 22, 2014, 2:03 pm CST