What Happens If You Lie Under Oath? Perjury Is a Pretty Big Deal

What happens if you lie under oath while on the witness stand? Well, perjury is if truth be told a big deal. Read on for details on the potential punishment.

We've all noticed high-stakes courtroom drama scenes on TV and in movies that contain a witness knowingly lying under oath. What happens in real-life trials when someone commits this crime, sometimes called perjury?

Ahead, we'll explore what exactly constitutes mendacity under oath, and what the possible punishment may well be. What happens when you lie under oath is more or less a big deal, to position it mildly.

So, what happens when you lie under oath?

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of what the fallout can be if you perjure yourself on the witness stand, it can be crucial to provide an explanation for precisely what constitutes perjury.

According to the United States Department of Justice, perjury is when, first, a person takes an oath to testify honestly at the stand.

Then, to end up a witness is guilty of lying under oath, it might should be indisputable that the person willfully gave false testimony.

But wait — there may be more! The particular person would have had to know they had been making false statements, and based on a subject matter fact, which is outlined as having the ability to "impede the proceeding or influence the decision of tribunal or investigating body and may pertain to the main issue, collateral issues, or even the credibility of witnesses."

With that stated, if any individual is found guilty of lying under oath, this is a felony in virtually each state within the U.S. So yeah, perjury is a serious crime if you ask any lawyer or justice reliable. A person who lies under oath would possibly serve jail time and more.

What's the punishment for lying under oath?

If you're discovered accountable of mendacity under oath, you would possibly withstand 5 years in prison.

An individual who commits perjury can also be matter to fines, or must serve probation, or all the above. Meanwhile, the punishment for perjury can depend on the nature of the offense being attempted. The extra serious the charges, the worse the stakes will also be for a one that lies under oath.

But here is the rub: First of all, being evasive on the stand doesn't represent as mendacity under oath.

The truth remains that proving someone has committed this assault on the American justice machine can also be somewhat tough, if not impossible. As The Atlantic put it in a piece of writing at the subject in 2019, "Cases can be difficult to prosecute and prove, because perjury requires clear and direct questions and brazenly untrue responses."

In other words, saying, "I do not recall" or equivalent isn't what we are speaking about when it comes to being found accountable of having lied under oath, and being shipped off to jail.

Perjury is so rarely prosecuted if truth be told, that it is called "the forgotten offense."

That mentioned, high profile cases of people that had been convicted of perjury include Lil' Kim, Olympic runner Marion Jones, and former LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman.

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