Whoever—
(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; is guilty of perjury and shall, except as otherwise expressly provided by law, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. This section is applicable whether the statement or subscription is made within or without the United States.
"LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII." Taken from website: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1621
- Perjury is a criminal act. Different jurisdictions have different rules about how to initiate a prosecution for perjury. A lawyer who commits perjury would also be subject to disciplinary measures from his professional governing body.
- Perjury is a criminal act that occurs when a person lies or makes statements that are not truthful while under oath. For example, if a person is asked to testify in a criminal proceeding and they are under oath but do not tell the truth, they can be charged with perjury if it is discovered that they have lied. By committing perjury, people partake in the miscarriage of justice and corrupt the legal process. As a result, perjury is considered a very serious criminal offense, even though most people who lie under oath do not consider it to be very serious. When people commit perjury, they disrupt the legitimate discovery of truth. For this reason, people who are charged with perjury may face a variety of severe legal ramifications if they are convicted. Some of these legal consequences may include having to spend time in jail, probation, or paying fines to the court. It can also interfere with their ability to obtain employment or security clearance, as they will be convicted of a crime of dishonesty.
"...it is important to the administration of justice that full disclosure by a witness be not hampered by a possible future damage suit. Consequently, perjury is an offense against the public only, and subject only to the criminal law." Eikelberger v. Tolotti, 96 Nev. at 531.1
- Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that perjury is very rarely charged against anyone who testifies unless the offense is egregious. The reason? It is exceptionally difficult to show that someone intentionally lied about something unless their lie is so far afield that it is plain that person is attempting to mislead the trier of fact.
- *On the other hand, if John shot Steve and the event was caught on camera, but one of the witnesses testified that John was not even there and had spent the whole day with him, that is much more likely to result in a perjury charge (among others, like obstruction of justice). The reason is that the evidence shows irrefutably that the witness clearly knew he was lying when he made the statement. Unfortunately, one of the most common places you might experience perjury is during family law proceedings. People routinely mischaracterize their income, events that might affect child support or alimony, the location and value of assets that should be distributed between the parties, etc. Of course, this is also one of the settings where perjury can often be the most difficult to prove and is rarely enforced because it is often difficult to prove. Nevertheless, if you can provide irrefutable evidence that someone has lied under oath, you may have the right to ask that the person be held in contempt for perjury and/or you or the judge might notify the local criminal prosecutor of the event.
- http://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=30944
Except when authorized by statute, no civil action lies to recover damages caused by perjury or subornation of perjury. In Eikelberger v. Tolotti, 96 Nev. 525, 531, 611 P.2d 1086, 1090 (1980), the Nevada Supreme Court noted that "it is uniformly held that the giving of false testimony is not civilly actionable." Thus, a party injured by perjured testimony cannot bring a civil action against the opposing party or a witness who has offered perjured testimony, even if the perjury has affected the final judgment in the case. http://deltabravo.net/cms/plugins/content/content.php?content.324
