When the FBI Comes Calling…®
PERJURY (Continued)
18 U.S.C. § 1962 (2007)
The Crime
Subornation of Perjury is likewise a crime. Under section 1622, it is a crime to procure another person to commit any perjury.
The Punishment
The punishment for suborning perjury is
- a fine, imprisonment for up to 5 years, or both.
Case Law Interpreting Section 1622
There are two elements to subornation: there must be the procurement of perjury, and there must be actual perjury. Without actual perjury, there can be no subornation. See United States v Brumley, 560 F.2d 1268 (5th Cir. 1977); United States v Slawik, 408 F. Supp 190 (D. Del. 1975). That said, it is not outside the realm of possibility for an industrious prosecutor to bring charges under the conspiracy statute, 18 U.S.C. § 371, for a conspiracy to commit subornation of perjury in the event that no actual perjury was committed. See, e.g, United States v. Ruhbayan, 406 F.3d 292 (4th Cir. 2005) (defendant indicted for conspiracy to commit perjury and obstruction of justice).
The second prong of subornation, the procurement, is a little more complicated. In essence, procurement is intending to have some lie under oath, and then doing something that would suggest that that person lied at the behest of the procurer. For example, a nod of the head during a witness's testimony at trial has been found to be subornation. United States v. Flint, No. 92-50554 at *5-*6 (9th Cir. 1993).