Perjury, also known as
forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a
false
oath or
affirmation to tell the truth, whether
spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial
proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth
about matters which affect the outcome of the case. For example, it
is not considered perjury to lie about one's age unless age is a
factor in determining the legal result, such as eligibility for old
age
retirement benefits.
Perjury is considered a serious offense as it can be used to usurp
the power of the courts, resulting in
miscarriages of justice.
In the
United
States
, for example, the general perjury statute under
Federal law defines perjury as a felony and provides for a prison
sentence of up to five years. In the United Kingdom
a potential penalty for perjury is a prison
sentence of up to 7 years. However prosecutions for perjury
are rare.
The rules for perjury also apply when a person has made a statement
under penalty of perjury, even if the person has not been
sworn or affirmed as a witness before an appropriate official. An
example of this is the United States'
income
tax return, which, by law, must be signed as true and correct
under penalty of perjury (see ). Federal tax law provides criminal
penalties of up to three years in
prison for
violation of the tax return perjury statute. See .
Statements of interpretation of fact are not perjury because people
often make inaccurate statements unwittingly and not deliberately.
Individuals may have honest but mistaken beliefs about certain
facts or their recollection may be inaccurate. Like most other
crimes in the
common law system, to be
convicted of perjury one must have had the intention (
mens rea) to commit the act, and to have
actually committed the act (
actus
reus).
In some
countries such as France
, Italy
, and
Germany
, suspects cannot be heard under oath or affirmation and thus
cannot commit perjury, regardless of what they say during their
trial.
Subornation of perjury,
attempting to induce another person to perjure themselves, is
itself a crime.
Famous people who have been convicted of perjury
- Jonathan
Aitken, British politician, who was a member of John Major's cabinet, was sentenced to 18 months
imprisonment for perjury.
- Jeffrey Archer,
British novelist and politician,
was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment for perjury
- Silvio Berlusconi was
convicted of lying under oath to a court. He changed Italian law,
allegedly to give himself an amnesty.
- Mark Fuhrman, Los Angeles Police Department
detective, entered a no contest plea to a
perjury charge relating to his testimony in the murder trial of O. J. Simpson.
- Marcus Einfeld, former Justice of
the Federal Court of
Australia, for lying on oath to avoid losing his drivers
licence.
- Alger Hiss, alleged
Soviet
spy who
worked for the United States Department of
State
, was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for perjury
and served 44 months.
- Dr. Cecil
Jacobson, American fertility
doctor.
- Marion Jones,
American athlete, was found guilty of two
counts of perjury in 2008.
- Lil' Kim, American rapper.
- Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former
Chief
of Staff to the Vice President of the United States under
Dick Cheney and assistant to President
George W. Bush, was convicted of two counts of perjury,
along with other offenses in connection with the Plame affair. President Bush used his executive clemency power to commute the
jail sentence.
- Bernie Madoff, the former Chairman
of the NASDAQ stock
exchange and the admitted operator of the Ponzi scheme that might be "the largest investment fraud in Wall
Street history".
- Mike Martin, Texas state Representative,
pleaded guilty to a perjury charge resulting from his testimony
before a grand jury investigating his attempted assassination in
1981.
- Michele Sindona, along with
other charges of fraud, false bank statements,
and misappropriation of bank funds
- Martha Stewart was convicted of
conspiracy
to commit perjury (although not perjury itself), and for making a
false statement to a federal agent.
Famous people accused of perjury
Famous people who have been accused of perjury include:
- Roland Burris,
freshman Democratic
United States Senator from
Illinois
has been accused of perjury as a result of his
testimony before the Illinois
State Legislature during the investigation into his dealings
with the now-impeached former Democratic Governor Rod
Blagojevich.
- Long-serving Queensland
premier Joh
Bjelke-Petersen was charged with perjury as a result of the
Fitzgerald Inquiry but a hung jury caused the trial to be
abandoned.
- Barry Bonds has been indicted by a
federal grand jury for allegedly
perjuring himself in testimony before a grand jury in 2003 as part
of the BALCO steroid scandal, in which he
denied using any performance-enhancing drugs.
- Former Houston Police Chief Clarence Bradford - was indicted by Harris
County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal for alleged swearing at fellow Houston Police officers;
perjury charge was dismissed due to the lack of evidence and/or
fabricated charges.
- Former U.S.
President Bill Clinton was accused of perjury and as a
result was impeached by the
House of Representatives on December 19, 1998. The Senate acquitted him on the false
testimony charge as cause to remove him from office by a vote of 55
not-guilty votes to 45 guilty votes. No criminal charges were ever
brought, though Clinton was later fined for contempt of court and,
after thorough negotiations, agreed to be temporarily disbarred to
avoid the possibility of a lengthy criminal trial.
- Joseph Ejercito Estrada,
the 13th President of the
Philippines, was accused of perjury.
- Alberto Gonzales, the former
attorney general of the United States, is under investigation by an
independent counsel for lying to congressional committees about the
firing of 8 U.S. attorneys (see:Dismissal of U.S.
attorneys controversy).
- On
March 24, 2008, Detroit
mayor Kwame
Kilpatrick was criminally indicted for possible perjury and
obstruction of justice
charges concerning sexually-charged text messages sent to his chief
of staff, Christine Beatty (both
were married at the time). Both are suspected of lying about
the existence of those messages under oath while testifying in a
whistleblower lawsuit against the city of Detroit, which cost the
city 8.4 million dollars. According to the Detroit Free Press, he was the third
mayor of the city to be criminally charged.
- Rafael Palmeiro faced perjury
charges (but was never charged) for possible false testimony in
front of Congress
regarding steroid use in professional baseball. Roger Clemens is currently under investigation
for the same.
- Tommy Sheridan, Scottish
politician, and his wife Gail, their trial is due to take
place at some point in 2010.
- Paul Burrell - accused of being
less than truthful at inquest of Princess Diana, but no charges
brought
- Eddie Price,
Jr. - mayor of Mandeville, Louisiana
, and former Tulane
Green Wave American football running back
See also
References
External links