Senate Approves Bill to Criminalize Perjury Before the Legislature

Despite existing laws and concerns over redundancy, lawmakers pass Bill 35-0269 to enforce penalties for false testimony before the Virgin Islands Legislature, aiming to enhance accountability and integrity in legislative proceedings

Despite the failure of Senator Kenneth Gittens’s ethics and conflict of interest bills to advance out of the Committee on Rules and Judiciary, a related measure criminalizing perjury before the V.I. Legislature was approved by lawmakers last Thursday.

Bill 35-0269 makes knowingly telling falsehoods before the Legislature a criminal offense. According to Mr. Gittens, “Our code does not have any penalty towards individuals that come before the Legislature that are sworn in, providing testimony or responses to the legislative process, and there's no repercussion if they were to be lying before the body. This bill simply puts that in place within our code.”

With the legislation in place, the Senate would be able to “take action similarly to that of what is done in Congress, and these fines that will be levied would be personally borne by the individuals who have perjured themselves before the legislature,” Mr. Gittens added. He admitted, “As a chairman, I don't usually swear in people because currently there's no repercussion if they were to lie before the body.”