Legal Definitions - Subornation of perjury

Subornation of perjury

Subornation of perjury is a serious legal offense that occurs when one person intentionally persuades, encourages, or helps another individual to lie while under oath in a legal proceeding. This means the person committing subornation is not the one directly giving the false testimony, but rather the one who orchestrates or induces someone else to do so. The induced individual then commits perjury, which is the act of lying under oath.

• Example 1: A Business Executive's Scheme

  During a civil lawsuit concerning a company's financial misrepresentations, the CEO instructs a junior accountant to testify under oath that certain problematic transactions were properly authorized, even though the CEO knows they were not. The CEO provides the accountant with specific false details to include in their testimony.

  This illustrates subornation of perjury because the CEO (the suborner) deliberately induced the accountant to provide false testimony under oath in a legal proceeding. The accountant, by lying, would be committing perjury, but the CEO is guilty of subornation for orchestrating it.

• Example 2: A Friend's False Alibi

  A person accused of a crime asks a close friend to testify in court that they were together at a different location at the time the crime was committed, even though the friend knows this is untrue. The friend agrees and prepares to give this false alibi under oath.

  Here, the accused individual is committing subornation of perjury by convincing their friend to lie under oath to create a false alibi. The friend's act of testifying falsely would be perjury, but the accused's role in prompting that lie constitutes subornation.

• Example 3: Influencing a Witness in a Property Dispute

  In a dispute over property boundaries, one neighbor offers a significant sum of money to a mutual acquaintance to testify in court that they witnessed the other neighbor illegally moving a fence, even though the acquaintance knows the fence has been in its current location for decades.

  This scenario demonstrates subornation of perjury because the neighbor is attempting to bribe or induce the acquaintance to give false testimony under oath regarding the property boundary. The neighbor is orchestrating the lie, making them guilty of subornation.