
Trayvon Martin family attorney, Benjamin Crump, is both an attorney for the Martin family, and simultaneously an identified, albeit unlisted, material witness in the case against George Zimmerman.
Crump is a material witness because of his specific and intentional engagement of Witness #8, Dee Dee, and her subsequent presentation to the State of Florida.
Benjamin Crump has also been assigned special status, as co-counsel of sorts, for the prosecution, by Florida Judge Nelson when she ruled he was not subject to deposition by the defense.
Subornation of Perjury – In American law and in Scots law the subornation of perjury is the crime of persuading a person to commit perjury — the swearing of a false oath to tell the truth in a legal proceeding, be it spoken or written. The term subornation of perjury further describes the circumstance wherein an attorney at law causes a client to lie, or allows another party to lie, under oath.
In legal practice, the condition of suborning perjury applies to a lawyer who presents either testimony or an affidavit, or both, either to a judge or to a jury, which the attorney knows to be materially false, and not factual.
In civil law and in criminal law, the attorney’s knowledge that the testimony is materially false must rise above mere suspicion to what an attorney would reasonably have believed in the circumstances of the matter discussed in the testimony. Hence, the attorney cannot be wilfully blind to the fact that his or her witness is giving false, perjurious testimony.
Moreover, an attorney who actively encourages a witness to give false testimony is suborning perjury, which is a crime punished either with formal disciplinary action, disbarment, or jail, or a combination thereof.
Likewise, a false statement by an attorney in court also is a crime similar to subornation of perjury, and is punished accordingly. Hence, in the professional conduct of an attorney at law, there is a fine delineation between assisting a witness to recall occurred events and encouraging him or her to give materially false testimony. (more…)







