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Obstruction of justice

 

 
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Obstruction of justice
 
 
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The crime of obstruction of justice includes crimes committed by judge
Judge

A judge, or arbiter of justice, is a lead official who presides over a court of law,which is operated by the local, state, and/or federal government....
s, prosecutor
Prosecutor

The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the Civil law inquisitorial system....
s, attorneys general
Attorney General

In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions....
, and elected officials in general. It is misfeasance, malfeasance
Malfeasance

The expressions misfeasance and nonfeasance, and occasionally malfeasance, are used in English law with reference to the discharge of public obligations existing by common law, custom or statute....
 or nonfeasance in the conduct of the office. Most commonly it is prosecuted as a crime for perjury
Perjury

Category:Limited geographic scopeCategory:USA-centricPerjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or Affirmation in law to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding....
 by a non governmental official primarily because of prosecutorial discretion. Prosecutors and attorneys general however commit obstruction of justice when they fail to prosecute judges and other government officials for malfeasance, misfeasance or nonfeasance in office.

Modern obstruction of justice, in United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 jurisdiction
Jurisdiction

In law, jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility....
s, refers to the crime
Crime

Societies define Crime as the breach of one or more rules or laws for which some Government or force may ultimately prescribe a punishment.The word crime originates from the Latin crimen , from the Latin root cerno and Greek ????? = "I judge"....
 of offering interference of any sort to the work of police
Police

Police are agents or agencies, usually of the executive , empowered to enforce the law and to ensure public and social order through the legitimized use of force....
, investigator
Investigator

Investigator may refer to:*Clinical investigator, an investigator involved in a clinical trial*Detective, a person who investigates crimes, can be a rank and job in a police department, state or federal employee, or a civilian called a private detective...
s, regulatory agencies, prosecutor
Prosecutor

The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the Civil law inquisitorial system....
s, or other (usually government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
) officials.






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The crime of obstruction of justice includes crimes committed by judge
Judge

A judge, or arbiter of justice, is a lead official who presides over a court of law,which is operated by the local, state, and/or federal government....
s, prosecutor
Prosecutor

The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the Civil law inquisitorial system....
s, attorneys general
Attorney General

In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions....
, and elected officials in general. It is misfeasance, malfeasance
Malfeasance

The expressions misfeasance and nonfeasance, and occasionally malfeasance, are used in English law with reference to the discharge of public obligations existing by common law, custom or statute....
 or nonfeasance in the conduct of the office. Most commonly it is prosecuted as a crime for perjury
Perjury

Category:Limited geographic scopeCategory:USA-centricPerjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or Affirmation in law to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding....
 by a non governmental official primarily because of prosecutorial discretion. Prosecutors and attorneys general however commit obstruction of justice when they fail to prosecute judges and other government officials for malfeasance, misfeasance or nonfeasance in office.

Modern obstruction of justice, in United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 jurisdiction
Jurisdiction

In law, jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility....
s, refers to the crime
Crime

Societies define Crime as the breach of one or more rules or laws for which some Government or force may ultimately prescribe a punishment.The word crime originates from the Latin crimen , from the Latin root cerno and Greek ????? = "I judge"....
 of offering interference of any sort to the work of police
Police

Police are agents or agencies, usually of the executive , empowered to enforce the law and to ensure public and social order through the legitimized use of force....
, investigator
Investigator

Investigator may refer to:*Clinical investigator, an investigator involved in a clinical trial*Detective, a person who investigates crimes, can be a rank and job in a police department, state or federal employee, or a civilian called a private detective...
s, regulatory agencies, prosecutor
Prosecutor

The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the Civil law inquisitorial system....
s, or other (usually government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
) officials. Often, no actual investigation or substantiated suspicion
Suspicion

Suspicion or suspicions may refer to:In television:* Suspicion , an episode of the science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis...
 of a specific incident need exist to support a charge of obstruction of justice. Common law
Common law

Common law refers to law and the corresponding Legal systems of the world developed through legal opinion of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through statute law or Executive ....
 jurisdictions other than the United States tend to use the wider offense of Perverting the course of justice
Perverting the course of justice

Perverting the course of justice, in England, Canada , and Republic of Ireland law, is a criminal offence in which someone prevents justice from being served on himself or on another party....
.

Generally, obstruction charges are laid when it is discovered that a person questioned in an investigation, who is not a suspect
Suspect

In the parlance of criminal justice, a suspect is a known person suspected of committing a crime.Police and reporters often incorrectly use the word the suspect when referring to the actor, or perpetrator of the offense ....
, has lied to the investigating officers. However, in most common law jurisdictions, the right to remain silent allows any person who is questioned by police merely to refuse to answer questions posed by an investigator without giving any reason for doing so. (In such a case, the investigators may subpoena
Subpoena

A subpoena is commonly defined as a written command to a person to testify before a court or be punished.More accurately, a subpoena is the conditional threat of punishment made by a governmental authority....
 the witness to give testimony
Testimony

In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter....
 under oath
Oath

An oath is either a promise or a statement of fact calling upon something or someone that the oath maker considers sacred, usually God, as a witness to the binding nature of the promise or the truth of the statement of fact....
 in court) It is not relevant if the person lied to protect a suspect (such as setting up a false alibi, even if the suspect is in fact innocent) or to hide from an investigation of their own activities (such as to hide his involvement in another crime). Obstruction charges can also be laid if a person alters or destroys physical evidence, even if he was under no compulsion at any time to produce such evidence.

In United States v. Binion
United States v. Binion

United States v. Binion 900 S.W.2d 702 is a case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit applied the recent U.S....
, malingering or feigning illness during a competency evaluation was held to be obstruction of justice
Obstruction of justice

The crime of obstruction of justice includes crimes committed by judges, prosecutors, Attorney General, and elected officials in general. It is misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance in the conduct of the office....
 and led to an enhanced sentence.

Notable examples

  • President Richard Nixon
    Richard Nixon

    Richard Milhous Nixon was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States and the only president to resign the office....
     was being investigated for obstruction of justice for his alleged role in the cover-up of the break-in at the Watergate
    Watergate complex

    The Watergate complex is an office-apartment-hotel complex built in 1967 in Washington DC Washington, D.C., United States, best known for being the site of burglaries that led to the Watergate scandal and the resignation of President of the United States of America Richard Nixon....
     hotel during his 1972 re-election campaign. Although it is widely believed that Nixon had no foreknowledge of his re-election committee's "dirty tricks
    Dirty tricks

    Dirty tricks are unethical, duplicitous, slanderous or illegal tactics employed to destroy or diminish the effectiveness of political or business opponents....
    " campaign against Democratic
    Democratic Party (United States)

    The Democratic Party is one of two major party contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party . It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world....
     presidential candidates that led to the break-in, he was aware of it after the fact and paid money to keep the participants quiet.


  • Martha Stewart
    Martha Stewart

    Martha Helen Stewart is an American business magnate, television host, author and magazine publisher. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising....
     was convicted of obstruction of justice in 2004, as well as other charges, for falsifying her trading records after learning her friend Sam Waksal, the CEO of Imclone, the company whose stock she sold, was being investigated for insider trading
    Insider trading

    Insider trading is the trading of a corporation's stock or other security by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company....
    . It appears that Ms. Stewart's own trading activities did not meet the strict definition of insider trading, and the falsification of documents was intended merely to create an explanation for what was a suspicious trade. However, her actions made it more difficult to prove that Waksal had also sold his stock in anticipation of negative news of the lack of FDA approval for Imclone's product.


  • Former Vice-Presidential adviser I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice in March 2007 for his role in the investigation of a leak to reporters that named a covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame
    Valerie Plame

    Valerie Elise Plame Wilson , known as Valerie Plame, Valerie E. Wilson, and Valerie Plame Wilson, and the wife of former Ambassador Joseph C....
    . His prison sentence was commuted by President George W. Bush in July 2007, just before Libby was about to serve a two and a half year prison sentence.


  • Conrad Black
    Conrad Black

    Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, Queen's Privy Council for Canada, Order of Canada, Order of St. Gregory the Great is a Canadian-born British people historian and columnist who was for a time the third biggest newspaper magnate in the world....
     was convicted of obstruction of justice in July 2007 for removing 13 boxes containing financial records from his office in Toronto after it had been sealed by a court order, returning the boxes a few days later. Black claimed he had taken the boxes because they contained personal items.


See also

  • Perverting the course of justice
    Perverting the course of justice

    Perverting the course of justice, in England, Canada , and Republic of Ireland law, is a criminal offence in which someone prevents justice from being served on himself or on another party....
  • Jury tampering
    Jury tampering

    Jury tampering is the crime of unduly attempting to influence the composition and/or decisions of a jury during the course of a trial .The means by which this crime could be perpetrated can include attempting to discredit potential jurors to ensure they will not be selected for duty....
  • Witness tampering
    Witness tampering

    Witness tampering is harming or otherwise threatening a Witness, hoping to influence his or her Testimony.In the United States, the crime of witness tampering in federal cases is defined by statute at , "Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant"....


Footnotes


External links

  • Congressional Research Service, December 27, 2007