Get Help With Perjury Charges

If you have been charged with perjury, immediately contact me, former prosecutor Justin Caldarone of The Caldarone Law Group, P.A., for a free consultation to protect your liberty and good name! Call 239-244-3242 or email the office.

Five Elements Of A Perjury Charge

To prove the crime of [Perjury Not in an Official Proceeding] [Perjury in an Official Proceeding], the State Attorney must prove the following five elements beyond a reasonable doubt:

1. The person charged took an oath or otherwise affirmed that he or she was obligated by conscience or by law to speak the truth in an official or unofficial proceeding.
2. The oath or affirmation was made to a person authorized to administer the oath.
3. The person charged, while under an oath, made a statement.
4. The statement was false.
5. The person charged did not believe the statement was true when he or she made it.

Fla. Stat. § 837.02

Perjury By Contradictory Statements

To prove the crime of Perjury by Contradictory Statements, the State Attorney must prove the following six elements beyond a reasonable doubt:

1. The person charged took an oath or otherwise affirmed that he or she was obligated by conscience or by law to speak the truth in an official proceeding.
2. In the official proceeding the person charged made a statement.
3. In another official proceeding the person charged made a statement.
4. The person charged made both statements while under oath or affirmation.
5. The statements were contradictory, which means that both statements could not be true.
6. The person charged made both statements knowingly and intentionally.

It is not necessary for the State Attorney to prove that either of the statements is untrue, if the State Attorney has proved they are contradictory.

You should acquit the person charged if you find that he or she believed each statement to be true at the time he or she made it.

Fla. Stat. § 837.021