Subornation of perjury is the crime of persuading a person to commit perjury; and also describes the circumstance wherein an attorney causes or allows another party to lie.[1] In American federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 1622 provides: "Whoever procures another to commit any perjury is guilty of subornation of perjury, and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both."
The condition of suborning perjury applies to an attorney at law who presents testimony (or an affidavit), either to judge or to a jury, that the attorney knows to be materially false, and not factual. In civil law and in criminal law, the attorney’s knowledge that the testimony is materially false must rise above mere suspicion to what an attorney would reasonably have believed in the circumstances of the matter discussed in the testimony. Hence, the attorney cannot be wilfully blind to the fact that his or her witness is giving false, perjurious testimony.
Moreover, an attorney who actively encourages a witness to give false testimony is suborning perjury, which is a crime punished with formal disciplinary action, disbarment, or jail. Likewise, a false statement by an attorney in court also is a crime similar to subornation of perjury, and is punished accordingly. Hence, in the professional conduct of an attorney at law, there is a fine delineation between assisting a witness to recall occurred events and encouraging him or her to give materially false testimony. The practice of “horse shedding the witness” (rehearsing testimony) is an example of such perjurious criminal conduct, which is depicted in the true-crime novel Anatomy of a Murder (1958), by Robert Traver, and the eponymous film (Otto Preminger, 1959), about a rape-and-murder case wherein are explored the ethical and legal problems inherent to the subornation of perjury.[2][3][4]