Is perjury a specific intent crime?

Hello youaretheman:

If you're asking whether intent is a necessary element to the crime of perjury, I would think you'd need to ferret out the particular law you're referring to. ALL states plus the federal government have laws against perjury. I'll bet they're not all the same.

Having said all that, I don't know how you could accidentally lie.

excon

It's an indictable criminal offence. If u want 2 get technical it is generally tried as a specific intent offence rather than a general intent offence

Normally it is lying under oath, so normally just the fact you did it, not the reason you did it, They have to prove you did lie.

This was the issue with Clinton for example, he lied about having sex,
His defense from what I remember was that what he did was not really sex. So although in his mind, we can say he did not beelive he was lying, the courts beleieved he was.

I think some issue of a simple mistake can be used in defense, in the end, the only issue normally needed to be proved is that it was done.