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Questions tagged [perjury]

Perjury is an act of lying under oath

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What's stopping someone from saying "I don't remember"?

There are (at least) two problems possibly stemming from a person testifying in court: If they tell the truth, the testimony may have negative consequences they potentially don't like (which is the whole point of 5th Amendment, when the testimony…
user0306
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Adapt the oath of truth to a reasonable version?

I find the oath Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? an almost absurd request. It is common-sense that nobody knows the whole truth about anything, so how could one ever disclose the whole truth? (Socrates…
LoremIpsum
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Is it a crime to testify under oath with something that is strictly speaking true, but only strictly?

In 1804, US vice president Aaron Burr killed former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Wiki gives the following description of the events on the day of the duel. In the early morning of July 11, 1804, Burr and Hamilton departed…
Allure
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How often do people who make complaints that lead to acquittals face repercussions for making false complaints?

In response to a recent question and others related to it, it appears that defendants who are found guilty, despite lying, are rarely punished further apart from the conviction. However, what happens if the allegations are found to be patently…
TylerDurden
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Is lying at all in a testimony considered perjury?

Say Bob was murdered at a coffee shop, and Jerry was a witness at the scene. At the trial, he is under oath, and gives his testimony. In his testimony, he explicitly claims that he was watching America's Funniest Home Videos up to the point when the…
OprenStein
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Is lying in an application for a job at a private company, signed under penalty of perjury, prosecutable as perjury?

A person applies for a job at the XYZ company. The XYZ company is a private company. As part of applying he fills out an application and signs it under penalty of perjury. The application has several lies in it. Can he be criminal prosecuted for…
Bob
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Has anyone been convicted of perjury for false DMCA takedown notices?

When a copyright holder demands that infringing material be taken down, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) paragraph 3A(vi) requires: A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the…
Paul Johnson
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A witness (former gov't agent) knows top secret USA information. Can a court compel them to reveal the informaton?

A former US federal government employee knows information that was classified as top secret by the federal government. This information is relevant to a case. They were called to testify before the court. This person is not a defendant. I believe…
Mindwin Remember Monica
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Benefits of "I do not recall..."

Its often a joke that politicians say "I don't recall doing X" when being accused of something. In English saying I don't recall implies that you could be mistaken. But literally speaking, at any point anything you say could be incorrect because…
Carlos Bribiescas
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Why aren't all guilty people charged with perjury

Say you are convicted of murder, for example. When you go to court, and plead not guilty under oath, isn't that perjury, since you're lying by saying that you didn't do it? "Perjury is a criminal act that occurs when a person lies or makes…
Noah Cristino
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Can I initiate prosecution for a lie in a sworn affidavit that I relied on?

Let's say someone provided me a sworn affidavit that I relied on (in case it matters, this is for a landlord/tenant matter). I later find very good evidence that the statement in the affidavit was, in fact, a lie. Other than any civil remedies that…
Eugene
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What happens if an expert witness admits he lied in a case

This happened in in 2004, in Germany, in a very small town. I don’t speak the language and relied on my English speaking lawyer and my bilingual gf. On the night before the court date, my lawyer told me he wouldn’t represent me anymore because the…
Thomas
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What should a lawyer do if they are confident their client is committing perjury?

Let's say a client confesses one thing to their lawyer, but at trial makes a radically different claim when asked while under oath. The difference is substantial and likely to affect the result of the trial and the lawyer reasonable believes the…
dsollen
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What are the consequences (if any) of admitting to a crime one did not commit?

Say that Vicky the Victim is murdered by Mark the murderer. However, Mark's best friend Fred doesn't want Mark to go to jail. So Fred admits to the murder, trying to take the fall in Mark's stead. In the worst case, obviously, Fred is convicted for…
chausies
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How common actually are perjury proceedings?

I’ve read a number of tenant advice materials that caution that landlords frequently lie at court and so one really has to be prepared for this to potentially happen. Meanwhile, I have read a number of civil court decisions where judges quite…
TylerDurden
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