Case Name: Emmanuel Charles WHITESIDE, Appellant, v. David SCURR, Warden, Appellee
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1984-12-24
Citations: 750 F.2d 713
Docket Number: No. 83-1015
Parties: Emmanuel Charles WHITESIDE, Appellant, v. David SCURR, Warden, Appellee.
Judges: 
Reporter: Federal Reporter 2d Series
Volume: 750
Pages: 713–719

Head Matter:
Emmanuel Charles WHITESIDE, Appellant, v. David SCURR, Warden, Appellee.
No. 83-1015.
United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.
Dec. 24, 1984.
John R. Gibson, Circuit Judge, dissented with opinion in which Ross, Fagg and Bowman, Circuit Judges, joined.
Fagg, Circuit Judge, dissented with opinion in which Ross, John R. Gibson, and Bowman, Circuit Judges, joined.
Lay, Chief Judge, concurred with opinion.
Before LAY, Chief Judge, HEANEY, BRIGHT, ROSS, McMILLIAN, ARNOLD, JOHN R. GIBSON, FAGG and BOWMAN, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
ORDER
McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge.
The motion for rehearing en banc is denied. Contrary to the argument presented by the state in support of the motion for rehearing en banc, our opinion does not create a right to commit perjury. Our opinion expressly states that the criminal defendant's privilege to testify in his or her own defense does not include the right to commit perjury. Perjury is a most serious offense and anyone who commits perjury should be punished for it. Our holding is limited to the fact situation in the present case. We hold only that a lawyer who has a firm factual basis for believing that his or her client is about to commit perjury, because of confidential communications the client has made to the lawyer, may not disclose the content of those confidential communications to the trier of fact, in the present case the jury. The lawyer who discloses confidential communications or who threatens to do so has departed from the role of an advocate and has become an adversary to the interests of his or her client. Such a client has lost the effective assistance of counsel, a right to which even those defendants who may later be accused of perjury are entitled.