Perjury
Perjury is the act of lying or making verifiably false statements on a
material matter under
oath or
affirmation in a
court of law or in any of various sworn statements in writing. Perjury is a
crime because the
witness has sworn to tell the truth and, for the credibility of the court, witness testimony must be relied on as being truthful. Perjury is considered a very serious crime as it could 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 provides for a prison sentence of up to five years, and is found at . See also .
The rules for perjury also apply to witnesses who have
affirmed they are telling the truth. Affirmation is used by a witness who is unable to swear to tell the truth. For example, in the
United Kingdom a witness may swear on the
Bible or other holy book. If a witness has no religion, or does not wish to swear on a holy book, the witness may make an affirmation he or she is telling the truth instead.
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 you have to have had the intention (the
mens rea) to commit the act, and to have actually committed the act (the
actus reus).
In some countries such as
France, suspects cannot be heard under oath and thus do not commit perjury, whatever they say during their trial.
Famous persons who have been accused and convicted of perjury include:
*
Jonathan Aitken,
British politician, who was a member of
John Major's cabinet, sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for perjury
*
Jeffrey Archer,
British novelist and
politician, sentenced to 4 years imprisonment for perjury
*
Alger Hiss, alleged
Soviet spy who worked for the
United States Department of State, sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for perjury and served 44 months.
*
Lil' Kim,
American Rapper.
*
Martha Stewart,
television and
magazine personality
*
Dr. Cecil Jacobson,
American fertility doctor.
*Former
U.S. President Bill Clinton was cited on
April 12,
1999 by
federal district judge Susan Webber Wright for
contempt of court for giving statements that were "intentionally false" under oath in his
January 28,
1998 deposition in the
Paula Jones lawsuit. As a consequence of this, Clinton was
fined $90,000 and the matter was referred to the
Arkansas Supreme Court and, ultimately, to the
U.S. Supreme Court. Later, in January, 2001, Clinton agreed to surrender his
law license and to give up his bar membership allowing him to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court.[
1]
Famous individuals who have been accused of perjury include:
*Former
U.S. President Bill Clinton, impeached by the
House of Representatives on grounds of perjury and
obstruction of justice on
December 19,
1998. The perjury charge was later rejected by the
Senate, with 55 not-guilty votes and 45 guilty votes preventing a conviction.
*
Lewis Libby, former advisor to
Dick Cheney and a part of
George W. Bush administration.
*
Rafael Palmeiro, faced perjury charges (but was never charged) for possible false testimony in front of
Congress regarding steroid use in
professional baseball.
