Revision of the Criminal Code to include Perjury

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It occurred to me during one of the recent cases brought before the court that there is no provision for perjury in the Criminal Code. While a perjury case could be prosecuted as fraud, I don't believe that doing so properly signifies the gravity of the offence. When someone commits perjury, it is not only an intentional falsehood made for the benefit of an individual but a direct attempt by the individual to undermine our judicial system.

Current Draft:
The Legal Code of The North Pacific shall be amended as follows and the subsequent sections of Chapter 1 will be renumbered accordingly:

Section 1.4: Perjury

13."Perjury" is defined as the willful provision of deceptive testimony provided under oath and the provision of altered evidence with the intent to deceive in a criminal trial being heard by the Court of The North Pacific.



Chapter 2: The Penal Code

...
4. Perjury may be punished by the suspension of voting rights, restriction on standing for election, and/or restriction on serving as a government official for whatever finite duration the Court sees fit.

...

First Draft:
The Legal Code of The North Pacific shall be amended as follows:

Section 1.4: Perjury

13."Perjury" is defined as the willful provision of
dishonest testimony or, intentionally deceptive or altered evidence or, provided under oath in a criminal trial being heard by the Court of The North Pacific.

As I am currently serving as Deputy Speaker, I recuse myself from all of my duties as Deputy Speaker with regards to this thread.
 
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For the record, you don't have to include renumbering clauses, chapters, and sections in bills. All you have to do is mention what is being inserted and where. The Preamble of the Legal Code empowers the Speaker to renumber clauses, sections, and chapters as necessary:
... but clause numbers and sub-clause letters will not be considered part of the law, nor will they have any legal effects. The Speaker will manage the numbering of clauses in accordance with the above requirements.
Edit: Also, there's no corresponding clause in Chapter 2: The Penal Code, if you intend there to be a specific sentence for perjury.
 
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I would suggest changing "digitally altered imagery" tp "altered evidence". That way you can include altered voice chat recordings under this section. My mind is on Christmas and family, should we include a clause outside of the proposed legal change to state that this crime is for offenses committed after the adoption of this bill?
 
I would put "dishonest testimony" before "digitally altered evidence" as I would presume the latter is also covered in the former but it would be useful to be specific.
 
This is already covered by fraud, but it wouldn't hurt to include perjury as a specific offence I guess.
 
I do think that it seems appropriate to create a perjury offence or similar, while most instances of it would probably be caught by fraud, I don't think that means there shouldn't be a more specific offence to recognise a particularly harmful category of conduct, at the very least it allows the scope for differing punishment (though, at the moment, fraud has no specific restriction on punishment).

In terms of the proposed definition, I think there are some issues that require consideration.

First, in relation to testimony, the mental requirement proposed is dishonesty. This isn't a standard currently in use in the Legal Code and I wonder whether there is a risk of that creating some confusion when it comes to be used, at least initially. Intentional deception, which is used in the current fraud offence, has already been considered in some detail by the Court and is used for another means of committing the proposed offence, so I wonder whether it may be more appropriate to use that phrasing for all elements of the proposed offence. That would avoid potential confusion over the meaning before the Court makes a determination and would also avoid having either several standards all meaning the same thing (which is an oddity currently existing with wilful and intentional) or two subtly different standards when it seems really the standard should be the same between fraud and perjury.

Second, in relation to documentary evidence, the current offence is simply the wilful provision of digitally altered imagery. As noted by Dreadton, this may leave scope for some types of evidence to escape the scope of the offence despite being of essentially the same false nature as others. But also, I think it is overly inclusive, as there may be times (notably with a prosecution for fraud) when it may be appropriate for altered evidence to be willfully exhibited by the prosecution in order to prove an offence but without an intention to deceive the Court as to the fact of the evidence being altered. I think, therefore, that it would make sense to have the definition as being "intentionally deceptive provision of altered evidence" or similar.

Third, briefs are caught by the proposed offence. I am not sure my view on this in particular. I can appreciate why it might be included, but it does seem to me that there may be reasons why context of a criminal trial requires the greater protection of a specific offence while requests for review don't. One such reason is that requests for review are, by and large, without any dispute as to the factual basis of them and so, in general, briefs shouldn't be deceptive in any material way as they should usually be focused on the law rather than facts, unlike evidence in a trial which ought to be the reverse. Another, though linked, reason is that requests for review don't really have clear standards around evidence and findings of fact, whereas the criminal standards are fairly specific and stringent, such that there doesn't seem, to my mind, to be as much of a risk; that is, the Court in a criminal trial must, if a reasonable doubt is created by misleading evidence, acquit the Defendant, while in a request for review the same standard of proof does not apply and the Court would appear to be able to conclude on the basis of what appears more likely even if there is information pointing away from that conclusion that could in a criminal trial compel an acquittal.

Fourth, as noted by Darcania, there is no provision for specific punishment in the Penal Code. This leaves the scope of punishment wholly to the Court. I have raised this issue in the past in connection with the fraud and election fraud offences (and hopefully will one day get around to resolving it) and it would not be unique to this offence, but I don't think that it is generally appropriate for such wide discretion on punishment to be left to the Court and it seems to me that some specific provision should be included for the new offence.
 
I've reworded the definition of perjury as suggested. I have also included the beginnings of a section of the Penal Code in regards to the new offence as suggested. My question to everyone is, what do you believe is a fair and just punishment? Should we make a specific form of punishment compulsory (will be punished by), as required for Treason or Espionage, or are we taking the "may be punished by..." route and place limitations on the types of sentence which the court could impose. Also, do we go farther than that and place restrictions on the length of the sentence imposed as well.

When initially considering this bill I had thought about making an addition to the penal code but I was unsure of the support it would receive or its necessity.
 
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This seems to a worthwhile addition to our Criminal Code and I concur with Zyvet and MadJack is saying that drawing a line between fraud and perjury is something we as a region can get behind. That being said, I too am unsure what would be an appropriate addition to the Penal Code. This seems like a nice piece of legislation, but I would like to see some suggestions for sentencing on that.
 
I don't see a need to amend the penal code in this case. Cases of perjury should be punished in a way proportionate to whatever benefit they could have realized by getting away with it. The penal code, as is, allows for that flexibility. The exceptions mostly deal with explicitly mandating summary ejection and banning or instant removal from office.
 
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I would think that there should be established penalties for an AG or government official who commits perjury. However, there are times when mandatory sentences don’t fit the circumstances of the crime. Kinda mixed on prescribing sentence for this crime.

could there be a suggested sentence that is a recommendation not a requirement?

Also would the AG need to amend the orignal complaint to include perjury or file it as a seperate case?
 
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I would think that there should be established penalties for an AG or government official who commits perjury.
While I can certainly appreciate this, I don't think it would be appropriate to amend the penal code to requite specific punishment for specific offices, considering that there is already an existing provision in the Criminal Code and Penal Code for government officials who would commit such a crime. If the AG (or another government official) commits perjury the prosecutor could file a Gross Misconduct charge along with the Perjury charge.
could there be a suggested sentence that is a recommendation not a requirement?
Not that I'm aware of. Generally, the Penal Code is used to specify what punishments and their duration are appropriate for the crime. Such as allowing the offender to be banned upon being convicted for treason. What the RA could do, though, is set a limit on the duration of the sentence and the rights/freedoms that can be restricted by the Court.
Also would the AG need to amend the orignal complaint to include perjury or file it as a seperate case?
I believe this would be a separate indictment filed by the AG, if I'm not mistaken as each indictment has to be accepted by the court. The AG would have to prove they have enough evidence to proceed with a trial before the charge is even accepted.

If the most of you believe that justice would be best served by leaving perjury covered by clause 1 of the penal code, I'll remove the penal code amendment and, if enough people think we should add it before the vote starts, it can be amended.

Mr. Speaker, I motion that formal debate begin and that a vote be scheduled at its conclusion.
 
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I don't see that there is any reason to think that a non-mandatory provision around sentencing could be included in the Penal Code.

I am not sure precisely the recommendation one would think appropriate, so can't be exact on drafting, but it would seem to me that there are a number of ways it could be done.

As to punishment, my view is that it would be appropriate to provide for punishment by restrictions on the rights to vote and to hold office (and perhaps on participation in public service) for a determinate period. I don't see there is need to leave open to the Court a spectrum of punishment wider than that.
 
@Zyvetskistaahn So, what would be appropriate would be to restrict the rights that are suspended to voting and holding office? I could get behind that.
 
I think that the following would suffice:
Perjury may be punished by the suspension of voting rights and/or restriction on standing for election or serving as a government official for whatever finite duration the Court sees fit.

As a drafting point, I do wonder whether the Bill should include the renumbering of the subsequent sections of Chapter 1, as the Speaker's power to manage numbering in the Legal Code is limited to clauses.
 
Perjury may be punished by the suspension of voting rights, restriction on standing for election, and/or serving as a government official for whatever finite duration the Court sees fit.

I suggest wording it this way. The previous draft could be read to restrict the court into 1) suspending rights and/or restricting standing for election OR 2) serving as a government official. Which would force the court to select one of the two. With this revision, the court can select 1 or more of the described sentences.
 
The amendment has been updated to reflect the wording as proposed by Dreadton.
 
I would suggest the addition of a "restriction" after the "or".

In relation to the section numbering point, I think it could ebe adequately addressed an additional clause of the Bill as follows:
The subsequent sections of Chapter 1 will be renumbered accordingly.
 
I would suggest the addition of a "restriction" after the "or".

In relation to the section numbering point, I think it could ebe adequately addressed an additional clause of the Bill as follows:

Perjury may be punished by the suspension of voting rights, restriction on standing for election, and/or restriction on serving as a government official for whatever finite duration the Court sees fit.

Like so?
 
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Edited prior to the end of formal debate...speaking of which wasn't that supposed to be some time yesterday?
 
Edited prior to the end of formal debate...speaking of which wasn't that supposed to be some time yesterday?
By my count it would be within 50 minutes of this post, which is five days since the thread was posted.
 
As this has been sitting for a week after formal debate ended with no action being taken to schedule a vote on this amendment. I motion for an immediate vote.
 
Speaker or not @Praetor, I thought it would be inappropriate for me to be involved in handling motions related to my own proposal. I know I could have. But it didn't seem like the right course of action to take.
 
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