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What Are the Laws Regarding Perjury?

Blog 2012 August What Are the Laws Regarding Perjury?
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What Are the Laws Regarding Perjury?

Posted By The Law Offices of Jeffrey C. Grass || 11-Aug-2012

The definition of perjury has remained largely unchanged for the last 200 years. Perjury is the act of swearing to provide the full truth under oath and falsely providing information that can affect the outcome of a case.

While perjury is certainly not the most serious criminal offense for which you would need an attorney, it is a crime that will land you in jail. One of the most recent well-known cases involved Martha Stewart. She was convicted in 2004 of five criminal counts, including two for making false statements—a close relative of the perjury statutes. In the United States today, there are three general perjury laws:

  • 18 U.S.C. 1621

This statute makes it a crime to present false statements under oath in official federal proceedings. This only applies to material statements, meaning that the information must be legally relevant or significant. The law also requires that the statement was made knowingly. This protects people who make false statements that they genuinely believe to be true from being prosecuted.

  • 18 U.S.C. 1623

This law criminalizes presenting false statements while under oath in front of a federal court or grand jury. This section also applies to proceedings that are ancillary to the proceedings. Again, the law is concerned exclusively with material statements and requires that the defendant knowingly provide false information.

  • 18 U.S.C. 1622

This section prohibits people from convincing another person to commit perjury on anyone’s behalf. Anyone convicted under this section of the United States Code can be fined, sent to jail for up to five years, or both.

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