2006 Ohio Revised Code - 2921.11. Perjury.
(A) No person, in any official proceeding, shall knowingly make a false statement under oath or affirmation, or knowingly swear or affirm the truth of a false statement previously made, when either statement is material.
(B) A falsification is material, regardless of its admissibility in evidence, if it can affect the course or outcome of the proceeding. It is no defense to a charge under this section that the offender mistakenly believed a falsification to be immaterial.
(C) It is no defense to a charge under this section that the oath or affirmation was administered or taken in an irregular manner.
(D) Where contradictory statements relating to the same material fact are made by the offender under oath or affirmation and within the period of the statute of limitations for perjury, it is not necessary for the prosecution to prove which statement was false, but only that one or the other was false.
(E) No person shall be convicted of a violation of this section where proof of falsity rests solely upon contradiction by testimony of one person other than the defendant.
(F) Whoever violates this section is guilty of perjury, a felony of the third degree.
HISTORY: 134 v H 511. Eff 1-1-74.
Not analogous to former RC § 2921.11 (RS §§ 674-13, 6827b; 89 v 40; 97 v 307; GC § 12463; Bureau of Code Revision, 10-1-53), repealed 134 v H 511, § 2, eff 1-1-74.
19xx Committee Report or Comment.
1974 Committee Comment to H 511
This section changes former law to limit the crime of perjury to falsification committed in the course of a judicial or quasi-judicial proceeding. Other falsifications under oath or affirmation are covered in section 2921.13 of the Revised Code. Also, unlike former law, it is no defense to a charges of perjury under this section that the oath or affirmation was irregularly taken. The section also changes the former requirement for corroboration to include a number of qualifications not previously stated.
Formerly, perjury included any falsification of a material matter in any proceeding before a tribunal or before an officer created by law, and also any falsification in a matter for which an oath was authorized, whether or not material. Under this section, the falsification must be in an "official proceeding" (defined in section 2921.01 of the Revised Code as, in essence, a judicial or quasi-judicial proceeding). Also, under this section, the falsification must be made while under oath or equivalent affirmation.
Former law required that an oath had to be "lawfully administered," and this was strictly construed. Straight v. State, 39 OS 496 (1883). Under this section, an irregularity in the oath or affirmation is no defense.
Under former law, perjury could not be proved except upon the testimony of two witnesses, or upon the testimony of one witness plus corroborating circumstances. This section narrows the requirement for corroboration by stating merely that conviction is precluded where proof that the statement involved was false depends entirely on its contradiction by one person other than the defendant.
Under this section, the false statement involved must be material, i.e., it must be such that it can affect the course or outcome of the proceeding in which it is made, regardless of its admissibility under the rules of evidence. This is substantially the same as the requirement for materiality in former law. See, 42 OJur2d 433. Whether a perjurer mistakenly believes his false statement to be immaterial has no bearing on the case.
Perjury is a felony of the third degree.
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