Opinion ID: 1546019
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Correction of Testimony.

Text: Appellant testified as follows: That about a month after the hearing before Senator Nye, at Lincoln, he went to Denver to assist in conducting the Republican campaign for election of Senators in several Western States; that a few days later he read in the newspapers of another inquiry being made by Senator Nye, in Nebraska, which referred to testimony he had given at Lincoln; that he conceived a meaning was being attached to his testimony which he had not intended; that he called up Senator Nye and said his testimony was true as he understood it but if the committee was placing a different construction on it he wanted to appear before the committee and explain his testimony, and would go to Lincoln or Washington or anywhere else, but could not leave just then as he was alone at the Denver headquarters; that Senator Nye said he could do nothing for him, but suggested he put his request in a telegram; that he did so in a wire (sent September 24, 1930) as follows: Senator Gerald P. Nye, Cornhusker Hotel, Lincoln, Nebraska. Am very much surprised to read in todays press reports of testimony before your Committee regards Primary Campaign in Nebraska stop In justice to the Committee and myself I will be glad to appear before the Committee at Washington any time after the middle of November which may suit your convenience stop At present my time is fully occupied with duties requiring my personal presence here. Victor Seymour. The court refused a request as follows: The jury are instructed that a bona fide but incompleted attempt to correct false testimony may show absence of criminal intent essential to perjury. It is the refusal of this request based upon the above evidence that appellant contends is error. The request was properly refused. We must take (as the trial court was compelled to) the request to mean just what it says. That meaning clearly is that if a good-faith attempt to correct false testimony is made, such attempt may show lack of intent to commit perjury. That is not true in fact or law. A perfectly serious attempt may be made to correct testimony knowingly falsely given. Such an attempt has no effect upon the existence of perjury in knowingly giving the false testimony. When false testimony concerning a material fact has been knowingly given, perjury has become and continues to be an accomplished and completed thing. This request may have been intended to present the situation of false testimony mistakenly given, but that is not its meaning. Had the court given the request, counsel would have had sufficient basis therein to have argued that even if appellant knowingly swore falsely before Senator Nye, yet a subsequent attempt to rectify his testimony might be considered as showing an absence of criminal intent. The situation is that, if false material testimony was knowingly given, perjury had been committed and nothing thereafter done could alter that situation, while if such testimony was the result of an innocent mistake it was not perjury. That issue was clearly presented in the charge. Appellant's contention was that his answers were true in view of his understanding of the questions. The essence of the controversy was the intent of appellant, and that depended upon his understanding of the meaning of the questions. The court charged as follows: Then there may be instances where the questions are very plain, easily understood, simple in language, definite in meaning, and the answers may be very simple, the meaning of which is unmistakable. Then there may be instances where the questions are involved, or are long, or where unusual words are used, where the relationship of phrase to phrase and clause to clause may be such that there may be difficulty in gathering the exact scope and meaning of the question, and in all cases the answer has to be considered under the circumstances in which it is given. So also, an answer itself, may be involved and difficult to put in words or hard to understand. And we are not all alike; some have the gift of expression and clarity and others have difficulty in expressing themselves on any occasion and might have more difficulty when under oath and trying to be exact. I am stating this in calling your attention to the statute which says that you are to consider, in effect, whether the testimony as given was believed to be true, because the belief must be considered in view of the circumstances under which the person made the statement. Of course it is proper to consider the intelligence, the experience, the education, the understanding of the person who given [gives] the testimony and his comprehension of the questions asked him and his knowledge of the meaning of the words which he uses in giving his answers. But after considering all the circumstances, the final and legal test is not what the words might ordinarily mean, not what some one else claims they mean, not what the jury thinks the words mean, and not even the meaning which the words have as definited [defined] in the dictionary, although the ordinary meaning of such words is proper for you to consider in ascertaining the meaning which was used by the one giving the testimony. But the test that you must consider and use, is whether or not the defendant believed the testimony as given was true at the time and in the sense that he understood the questions and in the sense he gave the answers constituting his testimony. In another place in the charge and after calling attention to various words used in the questions, the court said: In considering the meaning of the words as used you have a right to consider the common usage and meaning, or the various common meanings or usages of such words, and the more exact meaning as defined by the dictionary, but even after considering that, still the test for you is, as I have said, to find out the meaning in which the defendant who gave the testimony intended in his answers and understood in the questions where such words were used. Again in regard to some particular expressions used in connection with the testimony covered by count 2, the court said: I am not undertaking to bring to your attention the meaning of all the words in all of these questions and answers or all the meanings of those which might be considered ambiguous or indefinite, but I am trying to call to your attention the fact that it is for you to determine the meaning of the language and that if there is an ambiguity or indefiniteness in the meaning of the words used, that it is for you to say the sense or meaning in which Mr. Seymour gave his testimony and the belief that he had as to the meaning of the words which were used in the questions and answers.