HOUSTON – Understanding legal terms can be difficult, even for the most avid court watchers.
There are a lot of them that get thrown out during trials.
In our ‘Anatomy of a Trial’ series, KPRC 2 Legal Analyst Brian Wice breaks down the definitions and answers our questions for those caught in a lie, especially when it comes to our legal system.
WHAT IS PERJURY?
“It’s not like so many of us think, ‘Oh, he just lied. There’s a requirement that the statement has got to be false and that the individual who’s making it has knowledge of that falsity,” he says. “Perjury in Texas is committed. If an individual with knowledge of the falsity of a statement makes that statement in connection with the judicial proceeding, or if those statements required to be made under oath is a matter of law.”
WHAT IS A FALSE STATEMENT?
“A false statement is something ultimately that is significant enough, consequential enough, where a judge jury, fact finder, administrative body would have been misled had this statement not been made falsely,” says Wice.
WHAT IF THE DEFENDANT MAKES TWO FALSE STATEMENTS?
“It is a defense to a perjury or aggravated perjury prosecution and if you retract that, you take back the false statement that you’ve made before a prosecutor uncovers its falsity or before the end of the official proceeding in which that statement is made,” Wice tells us.
WHAT IS TAMPERING WITH A GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT?
“Tampering with a government document means that an individual is essentially with the intent to harm, deceive, or defraud, alters a government document, and it could be anything from false timesheets. It could be making entries that are clearly false in an offense report. It’s anything that basically impairs the integrity of the governmental process,” he says. “And it can range from a misdemeanor all the way up into the family level, depending on who does it, what it’s done for, and the damage that it ultimately incurs.”