Perjury (also known as forswearing) 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.
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 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. 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. 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. 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.
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.
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Perjury law by jurisdiction
Australia
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.
Australian Capital Territory: Perjury is punishable by a fine of up to AU$112,000 or 7 years imprisonment or both. If perjury was committed with the intent of convicting or acquitting someone of an offence which carries a prison sentence, the maximum penalty is AU$224,000 or 14 years imprisonment or both.
New South Wales: Under Section 327 of the Crimes Act 1900, perjury is punishable by imprisonment of up to 10 years. Under Section 328, if a person commits perjury with the aim of convicting or acquitting a person charged with an offence that carries a prison sentence of 5 years or more, perjury is punishable by imprisonment of up to 14 years.
Northern Territory: Perjury is punishable by imprisonment of up to 14 years. If perjury was committed to convict someone of an offence that carries life imprisonment, the perjurer can be imprisoned for life.
Queensland: Perjury is punishable by imprisonment of up to 14 years. If perjury was committed to convict someone of an offence that carries life imprisonment, the perjurer can be imprisoned for life.
South Australia: Perjury and subornation of perjury is punishable by imprisonment of up to 7 years.
Tasmania: Perjury is a crime in Tasmania.
Victoria: Perjury and subornation of perjury is punishable by imprisonment of up to 15 years.
Western Australia: Under Section 125 of the Criminal Code Act Compilation Act 1913, perjury is punishable by imprisonment of up to 14 years. If perjury was committed to convict someone of an offence that carries life imprisonment, the perjurer can be imprisoned for life.
Canada
The offence of perjury is codified by section 132 of the Criminal Code. It is defined by section 131, which provides:
(1) Subject to subsection (3), every one commits perjury who, with intent to mislead, makes before a person who is authorized by law to permit it to be made before him a false statement under oath or solemn affirmation, by affidavit, solemn declaration or deposition or orally, knowing that the statement is false.
(1.1) Subject to subsection (3), every person who gives evidence under subsection 46(2) of the Canada Evidence Act, or gives evidence or a statement pursuant to an order made under section 22.2 of the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, commits perjury who, with intent to mislead, makes a false statement knowing that it is false, whether or not the false statement was made under oath or solemn affirmation in accordance with subsection (1), so long as the false statement was made in accordance with any formalities required by the law of the place outside Canada in which the person is virtually present or heard.
(2) Subsection (1) applies, whether or not a statement referred to in that subsection is made in a judicial proceeding.
(3) Subsections (1) and (1.1) do not apply to a statement referred to in either of those subsections that is made by a person who is not specially permitted, authorized or required by law to make that statement.
As to corroboration, see section 133.
Everyone who commits perjury is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years.
European Union
A person who, before the Court of Justice of the European Union, swears anything which they know to be false or do not believe to be true are, whatever their nationality, guilty of perjury. Proceedings for this offence may be taken in any place in the State and the offence may for all incidental purposes be treated as having been committed in that place.
India
"The offence of perjury finds its place in law by virtue of Section 191 to Section 203 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ('IPC'). Unlike many other countries, the offence of perjury is muted on account of Section 195 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ("Cr.P.C"). Section 195(1)(b)(i) of the Cr.P.C. restricts any court to take cognisance of an offence of perjury unless the same is by way of a complaint in writing by the court before which the offence is committed or by a superior court."
New Zealand
Punishment for perjury is defined under Section 109 of the Crimes Act 1961. A person who commits perjury may be imprisoned for up to 7 years. If a person commits perjury to procure the conviction of someone charged with an offence that carries a maximum sentence of not less than 3 years' imprisonment, the perjurer may be imprisoned for up to 14 years.
United Kingdom
Perjury is a statutory offence in England and Wales. It is created by section 1(1) of the Perjury Act 1911. Section 1 of that Act reads:
The words omitted from section 1(1) were repealed by section 1(2) of the Criminal Justice Act 1948. Section 1(1) of that Act also abolished penal servitude; such sentences are construed as sentences of imprisonment instead.
A person guilty of an offence under section 11(1) of the European Communities Act 1972 (i.e. perjury before the Court of Justice of the European Union) could be proceeded against and punished in England and Wales as for an offence under section 1(1). Section 1(4) had effect in relation to proceedings in the Court of Justice of the European Union as it has effect in relation to a judicial proceeding in a tribunal of a foreign state. Due to Brexit, the United Kingdom is no longer subject to that court's jurisdiction and the 1972 Act has been repealed in its entirety.
Section 1(4) applies in relation to proceedings before a relevant convention court under the European Patent Convention as it applies to a judicial proceeding in a tribunal of a foreign state.
A statement made on oath by a witness outside the United Kingdom and given in evidence through a live television link by virtue of section 32 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 must be treated for the purposes of section 1 as having been made in the proceedings in which it is given in evidence.
Section 1 applies in relation to a person acting as an intermediary as it applies in relation to a person lawfully sworn as an interpreter in a judicial proceeding; and for this purpose, where a person acts as an intermediary in any proceeding which is not a judicial proceeding for the purposes of section 1, that proceeding must be taken to be part of the judicial proceeding in which the witness's evidence is given.
Where any statement made by a person on oath in any proceeding which is not a judicial proceeding for the purposes of section 1 is received in evidence in pursuance of a special measures direction, that proceeding must be taken for the purposes of section 1 to be part of the judicial proceeding in which the statement is so received in evidence.
United States
Perjury operates in American law as an inherited principle of the common law of England, which defined the act as the "willful and corrupt giving, upon a lawful oath, or in any form allowed by law to be substituted for an oath, in a judicial proceeding or course of justice, of a false testimony material to the issue or matter of inquiry".
William Blackstone touched on the subject in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, establishing perjury as "a crime committed when a lawful oath is administered, in some judicial proceeding, to a person who swears willfully, absolutely, and falsely, in a matter material to the issue or point in question". The punishment for perjury under the common law has varied from death to banishment and has included such grotesque penalties as severing the tongue of the perjurer. The definitional structure of perjury provides an important framework for legal proceedings, as the component parts of this definition have permeated jurisdictional lines, finding a home in American legal constructs. As such, the main tenets of perjury, including mens rea, a lawful oath, occurring during a judicial proceeding, a false testimony have remained necessary pieces of perjury's definition in the United States.
Perjury's current position in the American legal system takes the form of state and federal statutes. Most notably, the United States Code prohibits perjury, which is defined in two senses for federal purposes as someone who:
(1) Having taken an oath before a competent tribunal, officer, or person, in any case in which a law of the United States authorizes an oath to be administered, that he will testify, declare, depose, or certify truly, or that any written testimony, declaration, deposition, or certificate by him subscribed, is true, willfully and contrary to such oath states or subscribes any material matter which he does not believe to be true; or
(2) in any declaration, certificate, verification, or statement under penalty of perjury as permitted under section 1746 of title 28, United States Code, willfully subscribes as true any material matter which he does not believe to be true
The above statute provides for a fine and/or up to five years in prison as punishment. Within federal jurisdiction, statements made in two broad categories of judicial proceedings may qualify as perjurious: 1) Federal official proceedings, and 2) Federal Court or Grand Jury proceedings. A third type of perjury entails the procurement of perjurious statements from another person. More generally, the statement must occur in the "course of justice", but this definition leaves room open for interpretation.
Notable convicted perjurers
Jonathan Aitken, British politician, was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment in 1999 for perjury.
Jeffrey Archer, British novelist and politician, was sentenced to 4 years' imprisonment for perjury in 2001.
Kwame Kilpatrick, Detroit mayor was convicted of perjury in 2008.
Marion Jones, American track and field athlete, was sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment after being found guilty of two counts of perjury in 2008.
Mark Fuhrman, 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. This was one of the seminal occurrences of perjury by a police officer.
Alger Hiss, American government official who was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950.
Lil' Kim, 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.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted in 2007 of two counts of perjury in connection with the Plame affair.
Bernie Madoff, 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.
Michele Sindona, convicted of perjury related to a bogus kidnapping in August 1979.
Tommy Sheridan, Scottish politician, found guilty of lying on affirmation in a trial in 2010.
Allegations of perjury
Notable people who have been accused of perjury include:
Barry Bonds was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly perjuring himself in testimony denying the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The perjury charges were later dropped after a deadlock by the trial jury.
Former U.S. President 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. No criminal charges were ever brought and upon leaving office he accepted immunity.
Andy Coulson, British journalist and political aide, was cleared of perjury charges in the News International phone hacking scandal, because his questioned testimony was ruled immaterial.
Michael Hayden, 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.
Keith B. Alexander, the former director of the National Security Agency (NSA), had told Congress in 2012 that "we don't hold data on US citizens".
James R. Clapper, 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.