Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, p. 1077
Obstructing justice. Impeding or obstructing those who
seek justice in a court, or those who have duties or powers of administering
justice therein. The act by which one or more persons attempt
to prevent, or do prevent, the execution of lawful process. The
term applies also to obstructing the administration of justice in any
way--as by hindering witnesses from appearing, assaulting process server,
influencing jurors, obstructing court orders or criminal investigations.
Any act, conduct, or directing agency pertaining to pending proceedings,
intended to play on human frailty and to deflect and deter court from
performance of its duty and drive it into compromise with its own unfettered
judgment by placing it, through medium of knowingly false assertion,
in wrong position before public, constitutes an obstruction to administration
of justice. Toledo Newspaper Co. v. U.S.,
247 U.S. 402, 38 S.Ct. 560, 564, 62 L.Ed. 1186. See
18 U.S.C.A.
§1501 et seq.; Model Penal Code §242.1 et seq. See also
Misprison of felony; Obstructing process; Withholding evidence.
[Black's Law Dictionary,
Sixth Edition, p. 1077]