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Perjury

Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding.[A]

For other uses, see Perjury (disambiguation).

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). Further, statements that are facts cannot be considered perjury, even if they might arguably constitute an omission, and it is not perjury to lie about matters that are immaterial to the legal proceeding. Statements that entail an interpretation of fact are not perjury because people often draw inaccurate conclusions unwittingly or make honest mistakes without the intent to deceive. Individuals may have honest but mistaken beliefs about certain facts or their recollection may be inaccurate, or may have a different perception of what is the accurate way to state the truth. In some jurisdictions, no crime has occurred when a false statement is (intentionally or unintentionally) made while under oath or subject to penalty. Instead, criminal culpability attaches only at the instant the declarant falsely asserts the truth of statements (made or to be made) that are material to the outcome of the proceeding. It is not perjury, for example, to lie about one's age except if age is a fact material to influencing the legal result, such as eligibility for old age retirement benefits or whether a person was of an age to have legal capacity.


Perjury is considered a serious offence, as it can be used to usurp the power of the courts, resulting in miscarriages of justice. In Canada, those who commit perjury are guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years.[1] Perjury is a statutory offence in England and Wales. A person convicted of perjury is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years, or to a fine, or to both.[2] In the United States, the general perjury statute under federal law classifies perjury as a felony and provides for a prison sentence of up to five years.[3] The California Penal Code allows for perjury to be a capital offense in cases causing wrongful execution. Perjury which caused the wrongful execution of another or in the pursuit of causing the wrongful execution of another is respectively construed as murder or attempted murder, and is normally itself punishable by execution in countries that retain the death penalty. Perjury is considered a felony in most U.S. states. However, prosecutions for perjury are rare.[4]


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 is the US 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)


In the United States, Kenya, Scotland and several other English-speaking Commonwealth nations, subornation of perjury, which is attempting to induce another person to commit perjury, is itself a crime.

Perjury law by jurisdiction[edit]

Australia[edit]

Perjury is punishable by imprisonment in various states and territories of Australia. In several jurisdictions, longer prison sentences are possible if perjury was committed with the intent of convicting or acquitting a person charged with a serious offence.

British politician, was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment in 1999 for perjury.[63]

Jonathan Aitken

British novelist and politician, was sentenced to 4 years' imprisonment for perjury in 2001.[64]

Jeffrey Archer

Detroit mayor was convicted of perjury in 2008.[65][66]

Kwame Kilpatrick

American track and field athlete, was sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment after being found guilty of two counts of perjury in 2008.[67]

Marion Jones

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.[68] This was one of the seminal occurrences of perjury by a police officer.[69]

Mark Fuhrman

American government official who was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950.

Alger Hiss

American rapper was convicted of perjury in 2005 after lying to a grand jury in 2003 about a February 2001 shooting. She was sentenced to one year and one day of imprisonment.[70]

Lil' Kim

was convicted in 2007 of two counts of perjury in connection with the Plame affair.[71]

Lewis "Scooter" Libby

the former Chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange, in 2009 was found guilty of perjury in relation to investment fraud arising from his operating a Ponzi scheme.[72]

Bernie Madoff

convicted of perjury related to a bogus kidnapping in August 1979.[73]

Michele Sindona

Scottish politician, found guilty of lying on affirmation in a trial in 2010.[74]

Tommy Sheridan

British highwayman, known for his death while being pilloried for perjury in 1732

John Waller

was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly perjuring himself in testimony denying the use of performance-enhancing drugs.[75] The perjury charges were later dropped after a deadlock by the trial jury.[76]

Barry Bonds

Former Bill Clinton was accused of perjury in the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal and as a result was impeached by the House of Representatives on 19 December 1998.[77] No criminal charges were ever brought and upon leaving office he accepted immunity.[78]

U.S. President

British journalist and political aide, was cleared of perjury charges in the News International phone hacking scandal, because his questioned testimony was ruled immaterial.[79]

Andy Coulson

the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has been accused of lying to Congress during his 2007 testimony about the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques.[80][81]

Michael Hayden

the former director of the National Security Agency (NSA), had told Congress in 2012 that "we don't hold data on US citizens".[82][83]

Keith B. Alexander

the former Director of National Intelligence, was accused of perjury for telling a congressional committee in March 2013, that the National Security Agency does not collect any type of data at all on millions of Americans.[84][85][86]

James R. Clapper

Notable people who have been accused of perjury include:

Brady material

False confession

Forced confession

Horkos

Lies (evidence)

Making false statements

Obstruction of justice

Performativity

Pitchess motion

Statutory declaration

Testilying

Bryan Druzin, and Jessica Li, The Criminalization of Lying: Under what Circumstances, if any, should Lies be made Criminal?, 101 JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW AND CRIMINOLOGY (Northwestern University) (forthcoming 2011).

and Scott Wells, The "Blue Wall of Silence" as Evidence of Bias and Motive to Lie: A New Approach to Police Perjury, 59 University of Pittsburgh Law Review 233 (1998).

Gabriel J. Chin

Congressional Research Service

Perjury Under Federal Law: A Brief Overview