Crimes Against Justice

While many people think of crimes, they think of crimes against people or property but there is another kind of crime: crime against justice. In the case of crimes against justice, justice includes governing bodies, courts as well as public officials. These officials can include police officers and lawmakers. Crimes against justice generally involve disrespectful or disorderly conduct that also questions the authority of the legal system. Such crimes can include perjury, fleeing from justice or contempt of court. Similar consequences are doled out to violators of crimes against justice as those that are given to violators of other crimes.

Brief Historical Background

Perjury is a common type of crimes against justice. In the history of perjury, punishment has ranged from death or banishment or physical harm (such as severing the perjurer’s tongue). Years ago, perjury was considered more a sin than a crime  and the severity of it varied depending on the circumstances. For instance, if a false testimony led to a person’s death sentence, perjury would have been considered homicide. Perjury was an inherited concept of English common law and now has an important role in the American legal system, as it has the potential to cost taxpayers millions of dollars every year.

For contempt of court, the history is just as interesting as that of perjury. Contempt of court arises from English law, dating back to the late 1700’s under the Judiciary Act. This allowed acts of contempt to be charged, regardless of whether they were committed inside or outside the courtroom. There have been many changes throughout history that have brought contempt of court to the current concept it has today.

Precedent Setting Cases

One notable case in history is that of United States versus Binion, where malingering in a competency evaluation was found to be an obstruction of justice. In this case, Binion underwent psychological tests in response to his motion for a competence to stand trial evaluation.

During the tests, the psychologist noticed a discrepancy between the behavior observed and the test results, suggesting that Binion had no mental illness and was probably feigning mental illness. This resulted in an enhanced sentence for the accused.

Another landmark case was of Ex parte Terry from 1888. This case rose questions regarding the power of trial judges to punish for alleged misbehavior during the course of trials. Terry was jailed by the U.S. Circuit Court in California for the charge of assault while in the presence of a marshal of the U.S.

In the precedent setting case of Bronston versus United States from 1973, it was decided by the United States Supreme Court that a response to a question that was made under oath that was true, but that had the intention to evade or mislead the examiner, was not able to be prosecuted. This case was cited during the proceedings of the impeachment of Bill Clinton as a defense to the charge of perjury brought against him.

Defenses

The defenses for crimes against justice depends on what the charge is. If the charge is contempt of court, then there are many common defenses. Some of these defenses include: the court lacked jurisdiction, the order was not in fact violated, you were unable to obey a court order through not fault of yours and you did not know of the court order.

For perjury, there are a few commonly used defenses. One such defense is the “literal truth” defense. To use this defense, you acknowledge the response to the question was misleading however it did contain some of the truth. Another easy defense to perjury is that you did not understand the question that was posed of you. The onus is on the prosecutor to prove that the accused did in fact understand the question as it was intended.