Mortimer Byers

Mortimer W. Byers (March 28, 1877 – March 5, 1962) was a United States federal judge.

Byers was born in Brooklyn, New York. He received an LL.B. from Columbia Law School in 1898, and then served as a sergeant in the 23rd Regiment of the New York State National Guard in World War I. He was in private practice of law in Brooklyn from 1898 to 1929.

Byers was a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Byers was nominated by President Herbert Hoover on September 9, 1929, to a new seat created by 45 Stat. 1409; He was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 20, 1929, and received commission the same day. In 1957, Byers presided over the trial of Soviet spy Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher (better known by his alias, Rudolf Abel). Fisher was convicted on three counts, and on November 15, 1957, Byers sentenced Fisher to concurrent terms of imprisonment of thirty, ten and five years on the three counts and fined him a total of three thousand dollars.

Byers served as chief judge from 1958 to 1959. Byers assumed senior status on February 1, 1960, and died in Brooklyn on March 5, 1962.

He is portrayed by Dakin Matthews in Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies.

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