Juries to decide in perjury cases

SEATTLE – The Washington Supreme Court struck down part of the state’s perjury law Thursday, finding that juries, not judges, are responsible for determining whether a lie told under oath is important to a case.

The ruling was in the case of Dustin Gene Abrams, charged in Grant County with first-degree robbery and first-degree murder. At a pretrial hearing, Abrams testified that he never signed a confession and that he had been assaulted by a corrections officer; that got him charged with first-degree perjury, too.

The perjury law says that whether a false statement was “material” – that is, whether it could have affected the outcome of a proceeding – must be determined by a judge. But the U.S. Supreme Court has clearly established that juries must rule on all elements of a crime, Justice James Johnson wrote in the lead opinion.

Abrams sought to have the perjury charges against him dismissed on the grounds that the state law was unconstitutional, and the trial court agreed.

In his opinion, signed by four other justices, Johnson struck the part of the law requiring the judge to find whether false statements were material, and let the rest of the law stand. He sent the case back to Grant County Superior Court to have a jury decide whether Abrams’ alleged false statements were material to his case.

In a concurrence signed by three justices, Justice Barbara Madsen agreed that the case should be remanded to Grant County. But, she said, there was no need to strike down part of the perjury law. Judges, she wrote, should be satisfied that a false statement was material before the issue is presented to a jury, and there is nothing unconstitutional about requiring such a preliminary inquiry by the court. If the judges aren’t convinced of the false statement’s importance to the case, the charges should be dismissed, Madsen wrote.

Justice Tom Chambers issued his own concurrence, agreeing with Madsen’s reasoning.

Abrams, 24, entered a modified guilty plea last year to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 24 years in prison for the 2004 shooting death of Michael B. Mallon, 79, a retired state worker and World War II Army veteran. Prosecutors said Mallon was killed when he caught Abrams stealing vintage guns from his remote home about eight miles north of Soap Lake.