Chapter 13

1. Chapter 13 Offenses Against Justice and Public Administration

2. Bribery • Bribery – crime of offering, giving, requesting, soliciting, or receiving something of value to influence a decision of a public official. • Commercial Bribery – offering, soliciting, or accepting a benefit or consideration in respect to a business or professional matter in violation of a person’s duty of fidelity.

3. Perjury • Perjury – defendant takes an oath to tell the truth and knowingly makes a false statement of fact. • Subornation of Perjury – instigating or procuring another person to commit perjury. • Recantation – after making false statements under oath, and then decides to tell the truth.

4. Obstruction of Justice It is the duty of citizens to assist law enforcement to keep peace and apprehend wrongdoers.

5. Resisting Arrest All jurisdictions make resisting arrest a crime. Common law did not permit a person to resist a lawful arrest by an authorized officer but it did permit a person to use force to resist an unlawful arrest.

6. Escape • A person who departed from lawful custody committed the crime of escape. If a prisoner used force, the offense became a prison break. A person who forcibly freed another from lawful custody was guilty of the offense of rescue. • There is no defense for escape.

7. Escape Continued: • U.S. Supreme Court recognized the defense of necessity as being valid in the context of the crime of escape. The prisoner must demonstrate: • Because of an imminent threat of harm, escape was the prisoner’s only reasonable alternative • Prisoner made an effort to surrender or return to custody as soon as the duress or necessity lost its coercive force.

8. Contempt • Direct Contempt – contemptuous behavior committed in the presence of the court or so close to the court as to interrupt or hinder the judicial proceedings. • Indirect Contempt – acts that occur outside the court’s presence that tend to degrade the court or hinder the proceedings of the court.