American law The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as ...

Scots law Scots law () is the legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. Together with English law and Northern Ireland ...

, and under the laws of some English-speaking Commonwealth nations, subornation of perjury is the

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

of persuading or permitting a person to commit

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."Perjury The act or an inst ...

, which is the swearing of a false oath to tell the truth in a legal proceeding, whether spoken or written.

U.S. Law

In American federal law, Title provides: The term ''subornation of perjury'' further describes the circumstance wherein an

attorney at law Attorney at law or attorney-at-law, usually abbreviated in everyday speech to attorney, is the preferred term for a practising lawyer in certain jurisdictions, including South Africa (for certain lawyers), Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and the United ...

causes a client to lie under oath or, allows another party to lie under oath. In California law, per the state bar code, the subornation of perjury constitutes an act of "

moral turpitude Moral turpitude is a legal concept in the United States and prior to 1976, Canada, that refers to "an act or behavior that gravely violates the sentiment or accepted standard of the community". This term appears in U.S. immigration law beginnin ...

" on the part of the attorney, and thus, is cause for their disbarment, or for the suspension of their license to practice law.

In legal practice

As a crime, it has been defined as "persuading another to commit perjury." But "suborn" is more broadly defined. Amongst three definitions: to induce a person to commit a wrongful act ... esp. in a secret or underhanded manner; to induce a person to commit perjury; and to obtain perjured testimony from another. In legal practice, the condition of suborning perjury applies to an attorney who presents either

testimony In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. Etymology The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. ...

or an

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a statemen ...

, or both, either to a

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility ...

or to a

jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Juries developed in England ...

, which the attorney knows to be materially false, and not factual. In civil law and in

criminal law Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It prescribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and moral welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal ...

, the attorney's knowledge that the testimony is materially false must rise above mere suspicion to what an attorney would reasonably have believed in the circumstances of the matter discussed in the testimony. Hence, the attorney cannot be wilfully blind to the fact that their witness is giving false, perjurious testimony. An attorney who encourages a witness to give false testimony is suborning

, a crime punished either with formal disciplinary action,

disbarment Disbarment, also known as striking off, is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking their law license or admission to practice law. Disbarment is usually a punishment for unethical or criminal cond ...

, jail, or a combination thereof. A false statement by an attorney in court also is a crime similar to subornation of perjury and is punished accordingly. In the professional conduct of an attorney at law, there is a fine delineation between assisting a witness to recall events and encouraging the witness to give materially false testimony. The practice of ″horse shedding the witness″ (rehearsing testimony) (also known as woodshedding), is an example of such perjurious criminal conduct by an attorney, which is depicted in the true-crime novel '' Anatomy of a Murder'' (1958), by Robert Traver John D. Voelker, a justice of the

Michigan Supreme Court The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is Michigan's court of last resort and consists of seven justices. The Court is located in the Michigan Hall of Justice at 925 Ottawa Street in Lansing, the sta ...

and in the eponymous film (Otto Preminger, 1959), about a rape-and-murder case wherein are explored the

ethical Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...

and legal problems inherent to the subornation of perjury.''See'' Garner, B.A. Ed., ''

Black's Law Dictionary ''Black's Law Dictionary'' is the most frequently used legal dictionary in the United States. Henry Campbell Black (1860–1927) was the author of the first two editions of the dictionary. History The first edition was published in 1891 by West ...

'' 7th Ed., 1999, pp. 742, 1342, and 1598.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Subornation Of Perjury Crimes Perjury Scots law legal terminology Scottish criminal law United States criminal law

U.S. Law

In legal practice

See also

References