SUBPART C.  PERJURY

§123.  Perjury

A.  Perjury is the intentional making of a false written or oral statement in or for use in a judicial proceeding, any proceeding before a board or official, wherein such board or official is authorized to take testimony, or before any committee or subcommittee of either house or any joint committee or subcommittee of both houses of the legislature.  In order to constitute perjury the false statement must be made under sanction of an oath or an equivalent affirmation and must relate to matter material to the issue or question in controversy.

B.  It is a necessary element of the offense that the accused knew the statement to be false, but an unqualified statement of that which one does not know or definitely believe to be true is equivalent to a statement of that which he knows to be false.

C.  Whoever commits the crime of perjury shall be punished as follows:

(1)  When committed on a trial in which a sentence of death or life imprisonment may be imposed, the offender shall be fined not more than one hundred thousand dollars or imprisoned at hard labor for not less than five years, nor more than forty years, or both.

(2)  When committed on a trial in which a sentence of imprisonment necessarily at hard labor for any period less than a life sentence may be imposed, the offender shall be fined not more than fifty thousand dollars or imprisoned at hard labor for not less than one year, nor more than twenty years, or both.

(3)  When committed in all other cases in which any other sentence may be imposed, the offender shall be fined not more than ten thousand dollars or imprisoned at hard labor for not more than five years, or both.

(4)  When committed in any civil action, administrative proceeding, legislative hearing or proceeding, or in any other legal proceeding, by a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars or imprisonment at hard labor for not more than five years, or both.

Acts 1995, No. 820, §1; Acts 1997, No. 1312, §1; Acts 2001, No. 403, §1, eff. June 15, 2001; Acts 2004, No. 399, §1.