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1. Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
artfulness, coloring, confabulation, craftiness, credibility gap, deceitfulness, disingenuousness, distortion, equivocation, exaggeration, false coloring, false swearing, falseheartedness, falsification, falsifying, forswearing, fraud, insincerity, intrigue, lying, mendaciousness, mendacity, miscoloring, misconstruction, misrepresentation, misstatement, perversion, prevarication, sharp practice, straining, uncandidness, uncandor, unfrankness, unsincereness, untruthfulness
Dictionary Results for perjury:
1. WordNet® 3.0 (2006)
perjury
    n 1: criminal offense of making false statements under oath
         [syn: perjury, bearing false witness, lying under
         oath]

2. The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Perjury \Per"ju*ry\, n.; pl. Perjuries. [L. perjurium. See
   Perjure, v.]
   1. False swearing.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. (Law) At common law, a willfully false statement in a fact
      material to the issue, made by a witness under oath in a
      competent judicial proceeding. By statute the penalties of
      perjury are imposed on the making of willfully false
      affirmations.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: If a man swear falsely in nonjudicial affidavits, it is
         made perjury by statute in some jurisdictions in the
         United States.
         [1913 Webster]

3. Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
PERJURY, crim. law. This offence at common law is defined to be a willful 
false oath, by one who being lawfully required to depose the truth in any 
judicial proceedings, swears absolutely in a matter material to the point in 
question, whether he be believed or not. 
     2. If we analyze this definition we will find, 1st. That the oath must 
be willful. 2d. That it must be false. 3d. That the party was lawfully 
sworn. 4th. That the proceeding was judicial. 6th. That the assertion was 
absolute. 6th. That the falsehood was material to the point in question. 
     3.-1. The intention must be willful. The oath must be taken and the 
falsehood asserted with deliberation, and a consciousness of the nature of 
the statement made; for if it has arisen in consequence of inadvertency, 
surprise or mistake of the import of the question, there was no corrupt 
motive; Hawk. B. 1, c. 69, s. 2; but one who swears willfully and 
deliberately to a matter which he rashly believes, which is false, and which 
he had no probable cause for believing, is guilty of perjury. 6 Binn. R. 
249. See 1 Baldw. 370; 1 Bailey, 50. 
     4.-2. The oath must be false. The party must believe that what he is 
swearing is fictitious; for, if intending to deceive, he asserts that which 
may happen to be true, without any knowledge of the fact, he is equally 
criminal, and the accidental truth of his evidence will not excuse him. 3 
Inst. 166 Hawk. B. 1, c. 69, s. 6. 
     5.-3. The party must be lawfully sworn. The person by whom the oath 
is administered must have competent authority to receive it; an oath, 
therefore, taken before a private person, or before an officer having no 
jurisdiction, will not amount to perjury. 3 Inst. 166; 1 Johns. R. 498; 9 
Cowen, R. 30; 3 McCord, R. 308; 4 McCord, It. 165; 2 Russ. on Cr. 520; 3 
Carr. & Payne, 419; S. C. 14 Eng. Com. Law Rep. 376; 2 Chitt. Cr. Law, 304; 
4 Hawks, 182; 1 N. & M. 546; 3 McCord, 308; 2 Hayw. 56; 8 Pick. 453. 
     6.-4. The proceedings must be judicial. Proceedings before those who 
are in any way entrusted with the administration of justice, in respect of 
any matter regularly before them, are considered as judicial for this 
purpose. 2 Chitt. Crim. C. 303; 2 Russ. on Cr. 518; Hawk. B. 1, c. 69, s. 3. 
Vide 3 Yeates, R. 414; 9 Pet. Rep. 238. Perjury cannot therefore be 
committed in a case of which the court had no jurisdiction. 4 Hawks, 182; 2 
Hayw. 56; 3 McCord, 308; 8 Pick. 453: 1 N. & McC. 546. 
     7.-5. The assertion must be absolute. If a man, however, swears that 
he believes that to be true which he knows to be false, it will be perjury. 
2 Russ. on Cr. 518; 3 Wils. 427; 2 Bl. Rep. 881; 1 Leach, 242; 6 Binn. Rep. 
249; Lofft's Gilb. Ev. 662. 
     8.-6. The oath must be material to the question depending. Where the 
facts sworn to are wholly foreign from the purpose and altogether immaterial 
to the matter in question, the oath does not amount to a legal perjury. 2 
Russell on Cr. 521; 3 Inst. 167; 8 Ves. jun. 35; 2 Rolle, 41, 42, 369; 1 
Hawk. B. 1, c. 69, s. 8; Bac. Ab. Perjury, A; 2 N. & M. 118; 2 Mis. R. 158. 
Nor can perjury be assigned upon the valuation under oath, of a jewel or 
other thing, the value of which consists in estimation. Sid. 146; 1 Keble, 
510. 
     9. It is not within the plan of this work to cite all the statutes 
passed by the general government, or the several states on the subject of 
perjury. It is proper, however, here to transcribe a part of the 13th 
section of the act of congress of March 3, 1825, which provides as follows: 
"If any person in any case, matter, bearing, or other proceeding, when an 
oath or affirmation shall be required to be taken or administered under or 
by any law or laws of the United States, shall, upon the taking of such oath 
or affirmation, knowingly and willingly swear or affirm falsely, every 
person, so offending, shall be deemed guilty of perjury, and shall, on 
conviction thereof, be punished by fine, not exceeding two thousand dollars, 
and by imprisonment and confinement to bard labor, not exceeding five years, 
according to the aggravation of the offence. And if any person or persons 
shall knowingly or willingly procure any such perjury to be committed, every 
person so offending shall be deemed guilty of subornation of perjury, and 
shall on conviction thereof, be punished. by fine, not exceeding two 
thousand dollars, and by imprisonment and confinement to bard labor, not 
exceeding five years, according to the aggravation of the offence." 
    10. In general it may be observed that a perjury is committed as well by 
making a false affirmation, as a false oath. Vide, generally, 16 Vin. Abr. 
307; Bac. Abr. h.t.; Com. Dig. Justices of the Peace, B 102 to 106; 4 Bl. 
Com. 137 to 139; 3 Inst. 163 to 168; Hawk. B. 1, c. 69; Russ. on Cr. B. 5, 
c. 1; 2 Chitt. Cr. L. c. 9; Roscoe on Cr. Ev. h.t.; Burn's J. h.t. Williams' 
J. h.t. 



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