Perjury

Perjury

Perjury, also known as forswearing, 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. It is important that the false statement be material to the case at hand—that it could affect the outcome of the case. It is not considered perjury, for example, to lie about one's age, unless that person's age is a key factor in proving the case.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 ]
*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). [cite news|title=Detroit mayor faces felony charges|url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/24/kilpatrick.investigation/index.html|date=2008-03-24] 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.
*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.
*Paul Burrell - Boasted about lying in the inquest into the death of Princess Diana.
*Mike Martin - Texas State Representative accused of orchestrating his attempted assassination. [http://www.fanstory.com/displaystory.jsp?id=150380]

ee also

* Anatomy of a Murder
* Subornation of perjury
* Testilying

References


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  • perjury — per·ju·ry / pər jə rē/ n pl ries [Anglo French perjurie parjurie, from Latin perjurium, from perjurus deliberately giving false testimony, from per detrimental to + jur jus law]: the act or crime of knowingly making a false statement (as about a… …   Law dictionary

  • Perjury — • The crime and sin of taking a false oath Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Perjury     Perjury     † …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • perjury — per‧ju‧ry [ˈpɜːdʒəri ǁ ˈpɜːr ] noun [uncountable] LAW the crime of telling a lie after promising to tell the truth in a court of law: • A company official committed perjury during the trial. * * * perjury UK US /ˈpɜːdʒəri/ noun [U] ► LAW the… …   Financial and business terms

  • Perjury — Per ju*ry, n.; pl. {Perjuries}. [L. perjurium. See {Perjure}, v.] 1. False swearing. [1913 Webster] 2. (Law) At common law, a willfully false statement in a fact material to the issue, made by a witness under oath in a competent judicial… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • perjury — late 14c., act of swearing to a statement known to be false, via Anglo Fr. parjurie (late 13c.) and O.Fr. parjurie, both from L. perjurium false oath, from perjurare swear falsely, from per away, entirely (see PER (Cf. per)) + jurare to swear… …   Etymology dictionary

  • perjury — [n] lying while under oath deceitfulness, deception, dishonesty, falsehood, false oath, false swearing, false testimony, falsification, untruth, untruthfulness; concepts 63,278 …   New thesaurus

  • perjury — ► NOUN Law ▪ the offence of deliberately telling an untruth in court when under oath …   English terms dictionary

  • perjury — [pʉr′jə rē] n. pl. perjuries [ME < OFr parjurie < L perjurium < perjurus, false, breaking oath < per, through + jus (gen. juris), a right, justice: see JURY1] 1. the willful telling of a lie while under lawful oath or affirmation to… …   English World dictionary

  • perjury — perjurious /peuhr joor ee euhs/, adj. perjuriously, adv. perjuriousness, n. /perr jeuh ree/, n., pl. perjuries. Law. the willful giving of false testimony under oath or affirmation, before a competent tribunal, upon a point material to a legal… …   Universalium

  • PERJURY — Witnesses are guilty of perjury if it is proved, by the evidence of at least two other competent and consistent witnesses, that they had not been present at the time and at the place where they had testified to have been when the event in issue… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

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