United States v. Debrow United States v. Wilkinson United States v. Brashier United States v. Bogers United States v. Jackson 55
Decision Date | 16 November 1953 |
Docket Number | Nos. 51,s. 51 |
Citation | 74 S.Ct. 113,346 U.S. 374,98 L.Ed. 92 |
Parties | UNITED STATES v. DEBROW. UNITED STATES v. WILKINSON. UNITED STATES v. BRASHIER. UNITED STATES v. BOGERS. UNITED STATES v. JACKSON. to 55 |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Mr. John F. Davis, Washington, D.C., for petitioner.
Mr.Ben F. Cameron, Jackson, Miss., W. S. Henley, Jackson, Miss., R. W. Thompson, Jr., Gulfport, Miss., Albert S. Johnston, Jr., Biloxi, Miss., for respondents.
The respondents here, defendants below, were charged by separate indictments with the crime of perjury, as defined in 18 U.S.C. § 1621, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1621. 1 Each indictment read in material part as follows:
'(T)he defendant herein, having duly taken an oath before a competent tribunal, to wit: a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments known as the Subcommittee on Investigations, a duly created and authorized subcommittee of the United States Senate conducting official hearings in the Southern District of Mississippi, and inquiring in a matter then and there pending before the said subcommittee in which a law of the United States authorizes that an oath be administered, that he would testify truly, did unlawfully, knowingly and wilfully, and contrary to said oath, state a material matter which he did not believe to be true. * * *'
The defendants filed motions to dismiss, which were sustained on the ground that the indictments did not allege the name of the person who administered the oath nor his authority to do so.2 The Court of Appeals affirmed, one judge dissenting, 203 F.2d 699, and we granted certiorari, 345 U.S. 991, 73 S.Ct. 1134, because of the importance of the question in the administration of federal criminal law.
An indictment is required to set forth the elements of the offense sought to be charged.
Hagner v. United States, 285 U.S. 427, 431, 52 S.Ct. 417, 419, 76 L.Ed. 861.
The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, 18 U.S.C.A., were designed to eliminate technicalities in criminal pleading and are to be construed to secure simplicity in procedure. Rule 2, F.R.Crim.Proc. Rule 7(c) provides in pertinent part as follows:
* * *'
The essential elements of the crime of perjury as defined in 18 U.S.C. § 1621, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1621, are (1) an oath authorized by law of the United States, (2) taken before a competent tribunal, officer or person, and (3) a false statement wilfully made as to facts material to the hearing. The indictments allege that the subcommittee of the Senate was a competent tribunal, pursuing matters properly before it, that in such proceeding it was authorized by a law of the United States to administer oaths, and that each defendant duly took an oath before such competent tribunal and wilfully testified falsely as to material facts.
The oath administered must be authorized by a law of the United States. This requirement is met by the allegations in the indictments that the defendants had 'duly taken an oath.' 'Duly taken' means an oath taken according to a law which authorizes such oath. See Robertson v. Perkins, 129 U.S. 233, 236, 9 S.Ct. 279, 280, 32 L.Ed. 686. The name of the person who administered the oath is not an essential element of the crime of perjury; the identity of such person goes only to the proof of whether the defendants were duly sworn. Therefore, all the essential elements of the offense of perjury were alleged.
The source of the requirement that an indictment for perjury must aver the name and...
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