Dictionary:

perjury

  (pûr'jə-rē)

1. Law. The deliberate, willful giving of false, misleading, or incomplete testimony under oath.
2. The breach of an oath or promise.

[Middle English periurie, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin periūrium, from periūrāre, to perjure. See perjure.]

Criminal offense of making false statements under oath. In Common Law, only a willful and corrupt sworn statement made without sincere belief in its truth, and made in a judicial proceeding regarding a material matter, was perjury. Today, Statutes have broadened the offense so that in some Jurisdictions any false swearing in a legal instrument or legal setting is perjury.

noun

The practice of lying: falsehood, inveracity, mendacity, truthlessness, untruthfulness. See true/false.

For more information on perjury, visit Britannica.com.

A crime that occurs when an individual willfully makes a false statement during a judicial proceeding, after he or she has taken an oath to speak the truth.

The common-law crime of perjury is now governed by both state and federal laws. In addition, the Model Penal Code, which has been adopted in some form by many states and promulgated by the Commission on Uniform State Laws, also sets forth the following basic elements for the crime of perjury: (1) a false statement is made under oath or equivalent affirmation during a judicial proceeding; (2) the statement must be material or relevant to the proceeding; and (3) the witness must have the specific intent to deceive.

The punishment for perjury in most states, and under federal law, is the imposition of a fine, imprisonment, or both. Federal law also imposes sentencing enhancements when the court determines that a defendant has falsely testified on her own behalf and is convicted. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the court is required to automatically increase the defendant's sentence.

Two federal statutes govern the crime of perjury in federal proceedings. Title 18 U.S.C.A. § 1621 codifies the common law of perjury and consists of the elements listed above. In 1970, the scope of section 1621 was expanded by the enactment of 18 U.S.C.A. § 1623. Section 1623 changes the definition of intent from willfully offering false testimony to merely having knowledge that the testimony is false. In addition it adds to the definition of perjury to include the witness's use of information, including any book, paper, document, record, recording, or other material she knows contains a false material declaration, and includes proceedings that are ancillary to any court, such as affidavits and depositions, and grand jury proceedings. Section 1623 also contains a retraction defense. If, during the proceeding in which the false statement was made, the person admits to the falsity of the statement before it is evident that the falsity has been or will be exposed, and as long as the falsity does not affect the proceeding substantially, prosecution will be barred under section 1623.

Commentators believe that the existence of these two federal statutes actually frustrates the goals of Congress to encourage truthful statements. The reasoning behind this concern is that when a retraction exists, prosecutors may charge a witness with perjury under sec- tion 1621 and when a retraction does not exist, the witness may be charged under section 1623.

Two variations of perjury are subornation of perjury and false swearing; in many states these two variations are separate offenses. Subornation of perjury is a crime in which the defendant does not actually testify falsely but instead induces, persuades, instigates, or in some way procures another witness to commit perjury. False swearing is a false statement made under oath but not made during an official proceeding. Some states have created a separate offense for false swearing, while others have enacted perjury statutes to include this type of false statement. These crimes also may be punished by the imposition of a fine, imprisonment, or both.

Criminal law
Part of the common law series
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Actus reus · Causation · Concurrence
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Criminal damage · Arson
Theft · Burglary · Deception
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Obstruction of justice · Bribery
Perjury · Malfeasance in office
Inchoate offenses
Attempt
Conspiracy · Accessory
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Automatism, Intoxication & Mistake
Insanity · Diminished responsibility
Duress · Necessity
Provocation · Self defence
Other areas of the common law
Contract law · Tort law · Property law
Wills and trusts · Evidence
Portals: Law · Criminal justice

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 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 provides for a prison sentence of up to five years, and is found at 18 U.S.C. § 1621. See also 28 U.S.C. § 1746.

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 religious beliefs, 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 26 U.S.C. § 6065). Federal tax law provides criminal penalties of up to three years in prison for violation of the tax return perjury statute. See 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1).

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 mens rea to commit the act, and to have actually committed the actus reus.

In some countries such as France, suspects cannot be heard under oath and thus cannot commit perjury, regardless of what they say during their trial.

Famous people who have been convicted of perjury

Famous people 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.
• Dr. Cecil Jacobson, American fertility doctor.
• Lil' Kim, American Rapper.
• Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney and assistant to President George W. Bush, convicted of two counts of perjury along with other offenses in connection with the Plame affair.
• Mark Fuhrman, LAPD Detective in the OJ Simpson case who pled no contest to a perjury charge for his testimony in Simpson's murder trial.
• Mike Martin, Texas State Representative pled guilty to a perjury charge resulting from his testimony before a grand jury investigating his attempted assassination in 1981.

Famous people accused of perjury

Famous people who have been accused of perjury include:

• Barry Bonds is currently under investigation 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 C.O. 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 rejected the false testimony charge as cause to remove him from office with 55 not-guilty votes and 45 guilty votes, as they deemed the matter immaterial to the case. No criminal charges were ever brought, though Clinton was later fined for contempt of court ^{[1] [2]} and, after thorough negotiations, agreed to be temporarily disbarred to avoid the possibility of a lengthy criminal trial. ^[3]
• Rafael Palmeiro faced perjury charges (but was never charged) for possible false testimony in front of Congress regarding steroid use in professional baseball
• Several witnesses, including five members of the Scottish Parliament at the time, in the Sheridan v News International defamation case. This is currently under police investigation.
• Joseph Ejercito Estrada the Philippine President was accused of Perjury.

References

1. ^ "Clinton found in civil contempt for Jones testimony", 1999-04-12. 
2. ^ "Clinton Eligible, Once Again, To Practice Law", 2006-01-17. 
3. ^ "Exiting Job, Clinton Accepts Immunity Deal", 2001-01-20. 

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Common misspelling(s) of perjury

• perjery

Dansk (Danish)
n. - mened, falsk forklaring

Nederlands (Dutch)
meineed

Français (French)
n. - parjure, (Jur) faux témoignage

Deutsch (German)
n. - eidliche Falschaussage

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ψευδορκία, ψευδομαρτυρία, επιορκία

Italiano (Italian)
spergiuro

Português (Portuguese)
n. - perjúrio (m)

Русский (Russian)
лжесвидетельство

Español (Spanish)
n. - perjurio, falso testimonio

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - mened

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
伪誓, 伪证

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 偽誓, 偽證

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 위서(죄), 위증(죄), 서약을 깨뜨림

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 偽証, 偽証罪

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) كاذب, يمينا زورا‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮עדות שקר, שבועת שקר‬

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