1759
Perjury Cases28 USC 1746 Declarations
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Sections 1621 and 1623(a) both explicitly cross-reference 28 U.S.C.
§ 1746. Congress added 18 U.S.C. § 1746 in 1976 to allow
certain
unsworn
declarations to be made subject to the penalties of perjury. Case law
concerning
section 1746 declarations is extremely limited and generally concerns
whether
unsworn declarations can be submitted in particular proceedings. Section
1746
declarations are prosecutable as perjury, even though the law did not
require the
original declaration under penalty of perjury, to be sworn. United
States v.
Gomez-Vigil, 929 F.2d 254, 257 (6th Cir. 1991). These declarations may
be
scrutinized by the courts. For example, the United States Court of Appeals
for
the Ninth Circuit overturned a section 1623(c) conviction because one
witness
statement at issue was not under oath, but was taken under section 1746.
United States v. Jaramillo, 69 F.3d 388, 390-91 (9th Cir. 1995). The
court determined that Congress required section 1623(c) inconsistent
statement
prosecutions to meet stringent requirements and that since only section
1623(a)
referred expressly to section 1746, unsworn declarations did not meet
section
1623(c)'s requirements.
[cited in USAM 9-69.200] | |