Protection Against Perjury
Perjury is when someone does not tell the truth, under an oath. Since this can cause a lot of problems in court, Congress created 18 U.S.C. 1621, 1622 and 1623 (Breedlove, 2009). Section 1621, False Testimony Generally is very broad and says that all statements under oath given before a competent police officer or person (Breedlove, 2009). Section 1622, Subornation of Perjury, does not allow for another person to persuade another to commit perjury (Breedlove, 2009). Section 1623, False Testimony to Court or Grand Jury, says that statements given in a court or grand jury must be a truthful testimony (Breedlove, 2009). These three statutes are important because they try to ensure the truth is given so that no one innocent is convicted.
Four Elements
There are four elements of perjury and perjury of subornation: oath, intents, falsity and materiality. For oath, it has to be proven that there was a false testimony or information given for Section 1621 and 1622 (Breedlove, 2009). When it comes to intent, Section 1621 requires that the person willfully did not tell the truth and that they had knowledge of it (Breedlove, 2009), Section 1623 requires that there just be knowledge of the false testimony (Breedlove, 2009). A statement has to be false in order for it to be considered as perjured but whether or not the person who gave that false testimony knew about it is up for the jury to decide (Breedlove, 2009, 906). The court typically rules that any question that can be open for interpretation is not perjury (Breedlove, 2009). Finally, in any false statement, the prosecution must provide materiality. The courts will say a statement is material when it calls to question the charges of the defendant (Breedlove, 2009). It is important to think about this when considering those who are wrongfully incarcerated because it describes how perjury can be define and how once a false statement is identified, what elements it must possess to be seen as perjury.
Police Perjury
While a police officer should be an authoritative figure that a court and jury can trust, they do give out false statements that could lead to a wrongful conviction. There are two main reasons why a police officer would commit perjury. One reason an officer may commit perjury is to cover up an evidence that they have violated the fourth amendment (a right to no unreasonable search and seizures) (Walkingshaw, 2013). The other reason why an office may commit perjury is to prevent revealing misconduct done my other officers (Walkingshaw, 2013). A survey by Myron Ofrield was given to 100 police officers working in the Narcotics Department of the Chicago Police Department, and it asked why they perjure themselves (Walkingshaw, 2013). The officers responded that they are responsible for making and arrest and being able to give evidence to support their prosecution (Walkingshaw, 2013). The officers also expressed concerns about their reputations deteriorating if they were not able to stop evidence from being excluded from their cases, and being moved down to a undesirable position (Walkingshaw, 2013). When prosecutors do find out that an officer is committing such misconduct, they often do not press charges because prosecuting a police officer is difficult (Walkingshaw, 2013). It is a difficult case to prosecute because a witness often recants on the stand, suggestions of witness tampering and judges circumspect to publicly identify police perjury (Walkingshaw, 2013). Judges may also feel some sort of pressure to accept perjured statements by police by social pressures like politics (Walkingshaw, 2013). With understanding police perjury, we can see how their actions really just reflect self-interest and no concern of whether or not the correct person is going to prison. By looking back at the National Registry for Exonerations, we see over half (58%) of those who were wrongfully convicted was due to perjury. This is an issue that should be recognized more because the laws that are in place to prevent this are not strong enough and are not always being used against those who perjure.