Why isnt PURGERY added on to sentences/ fines?
Well, first, it’s “Perjury”. Second, a penalty for committing perjury cannot just be ‘added on’ to the penalty for the underlying offense. Perjury is a crime. The person believed to have committed perjury would have to be accused of it, charged, and prosecuted via a whole new trial. Third, pleading not guilty is never perjury under English law, or the law of any of those countries, such as the USA, Australia etc whose legal systems are based on English law. You have a legal right to plead not guilty to a crime and require the State to prove their case against you beyond a reasonable doubt. If a defendant who has pled not guilty then takes the stand and testifies in his own defense (unusual) then that testimony is given under penalty of perjury. It is ‘very’ rare, though, for a defendant to be criminally charged with perjury for lying in his own defense. If a witness knowingly lies under oath about a material matter then he can be charged with perjury – and that does happen. People are
