The Language of Perjury Cases

The Language of Perjury Cases
Author: Roger W. Shuy
Publisher: OUP USA
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2011-09-14
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 019979538X

The Language of Perjury Cases outlines the contributions that linguistics can make to both the gathering of evidence and the way that evidence is analyzed in perjury cases. Roger W. Shuy describes eleven representative lawsuits—involving bankruptcy, unions, hunting licenses, doctors, priests, and Senators—for which he served as a consultant. Shuy's linguistic analysis illustrates how grammatical referencing, speech acts, discourse structure, framing, conveyed meaning, intentionality, and malicious language affected the outcome of these cases.

Perjury

Perjury
Author: Allen Weinstein
Publisher: Random House (NY)
Total Pages: 684
Release: 1997
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

On August 3, 1948, "Time" magazine editor Whittaker Chambers made a stunning allegation before the House Un-American Activities Committee: Alger Hiss, former high-ranking State Department official, had served with him in the Communist underground. Hiss's defense was the gripping story of its day, and the question of his guilt remains an enigma. This book provides fascinating insights into the case and into the American political life of the 1930s and 1940s. of photos.

The Language of Murder Cases

The Language of Murder Cases
Author: Roger W. Shuy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2014-04-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0190203226

The Language of Murder Cases describes fifteen court cases for which Roger W. Shuy served as an expert language witness. Investigations and trials in murder cases are guided by the important legal terms describing the mental states of defendants: intentionality, predisposition, and voluntariness. Unfortunately, statutes and dictionaries can provide only loose definitions, largely because mental states are virtually impossible to define. The meaning of these terms, therefore, must be adduced either by inferences and assumptions, or by any available language evidence-often the best window into a speaker's mind. Fortunately, this window of evidence exists primarily in electronically recorded undercover conversations, police interviews, and legal hearings and trials, all of which are subject to linguistic analysis before and during trial. In this book, Shuy explains how vague legal terminology can be clarified by analysis of the language used by suspects, defendants, law enforcement officers, and attorneys. He examines speech events, schemas, agendas, speech acts, conversational strategies, as well as smaller language units such as syntax, lexicon, and phonology, and discusses how these can play a major role in deciding murder cases. In his analysis, Shuy draws on his personal experience testifying at fifteen fascinating murder trials, focusing on the role that language played in each. He concludes with a summary of how his analyses were regarded by the juries as they struggled with the equally vague concept of reasonable doubt.

From Lying to Perjury

From Lying to Perjury
Author: Laurence R. Horn
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2022-06-06
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110733811

This volume provides new insights on lying and (intentionally) misleading in and out of the courtroom, a timely topic for scholarship and society. Not all deceptive statements are lies; not every lie under oath amounts to perjury—but what are the relevant criteria? Taxonomies of falsehood based on illocutionary force, utterance context and speakers’ intentions have been debated by linguists, moral philosophers, social psychologists and cognitive scientists. Legal scholars have examined the boundary between actual perjury and garden-variety lies. The fourteen previously unpublished essays in this book apply theoretical and empirical tools to delineate the landscape of falsehood, half-truth, perjury, and verbal manipulation, including puffery, bluffing, and bullshit. The papers in this collection address conceptual and ethical aspects of lying vs. misleading and the correlation of this opposition with the Gricean pragmatic distinction between what is said and what is implicated. The questions of truth and lies addressed in this volume have long engaged the attention of scholars in linguistics, philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, organizational research, and the law, and researchers from all these fields will find this book of interest.

The Language of Fraud Cases

The Language of Fraud Cases
Author: Roger W. Shuy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2016
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0190270640

The Language of Fraud Cases describes eight court cases that Roger W. Shuy consulted on, and demonstrates the role of linguistic analysis in defining fraudulent language in the context of law.

Speaking of Crime

Speaking of Crime
Author: Lawrence M. Solan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2010-08-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0226767876

Why do so many people voluntarily consent to searches by have the police search their person or vehicle when they know that they are carrying contraband or evidence of illegal activity? Does everyone understand the Miranda warning? How well can people recognize a voice on tape? Can linguistic experts identify who wrote an anonymous threatening letter? Speaking of Crime answers these questions and examines the complex role of language within our criminal justice system. Lawrence M. Solan and Peter M. Tiersma compile numerous cases, ranging from the Lindbergh kidnapping to the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton to the JonBenét Ramsey case, that provide real-life examples of how language functions in arrests, investigations, interrogations, confessions, and trials. In a clear and accessible style, Solan and Tiersma show how recent advances in the study of language can aid in understanding how legal problems arise and how they might be solved. With compelling discussions current issues and controversies, this book is a provocative state-of-the-art survey that will be of enormous value to legal scholars and professionals throughout the criminal justice system.

Creating Language Crimes

Creating Language Crimes
Author: Roger W. Shuy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2005-09-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0195181662

This book illustrates how linguistic analysis of undercover tape recordings made by law enforcement can help defense attorneys, law enforcement officers, judges, and juries better understand the effects of conversational strategies used to give the appearance of criminal activity. If only the appearance of such crime is created, law enforcement has not reached its evidentiary goal. Eleven conversational strategies were used in the twelve actual criminal cases described in this book.

Model Rules of Professional Conduct

Model Rules of Professional Conduct
Author: American Bar Association. House of Delegates
Publisher: American Bar Association
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2007
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9781590318737

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

Tangled Webs

Tangled Webs
Author: James B. Stewart
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 526
Release: 2011-04-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1101476516

Bestselling author James B. Stewart's newsbreaking investigation of our era's most high-profile perjurers, revealing the alarming extent of this national epidemic. Our system of justice rests on a simple proposition: that witnesses will raise their hands and tell the truth. In Tangled Webs, James B. Stewart reveals in vivid detail the consequences of the perjury epidemic that has swept our country, undermining the very foundation of our courts. With many prosecutors, investigators, and participants speaking for the first time, Tangled Webs goes behind the scene of the trials of media and homemaking entrepreneur Martha Stewart; top White House political adviser Lewis "Scooter" Libby; home-run king Barry Bonds; and Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff. The saga of Martha Stewart's conviction captured the nation, but until now no one has answered the most basic question: Why would Stewart risk prison, put her entire empire in jeopardy, and lie repeatedly to government investigators to save a few hundred thousand dollars in stock gains? Moreover, how exactly was the notoriously meticulous Stewart brought down? Drawing on the accounts of then-deputy attorney general James Comey and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, Stewart sheds new light on the Libby investigation, making clear how far into the White House the Valerie Plame CIA scandal extended, and why Libby took the fall. In San Francisco, Giants home-run king Barry Bonds faces trial due to his testimony before a grand jury investigating the use of illegal steroids in sports. Bonds was warned explicitly that the only crime he faced was perjury. Stewart unlocks the story behind the mounting evidence that he nonetheless lied under oath. Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme is infamous, but less well known is how he eluded detection for so long in the face of repeated investigations. Of the four he is the only one who has admitted to lying. The perjury outbreak is symptomatic of a broader breakdown of ethics in American life. It isn't just the judicial system that relies on an honor code: Academia, business, medicine, and government all depend on it. Tangled Webs explores the age-old tensions between greed and justice, self-interest and public interest, loyalty and duty. At a time when Americans seem hungry for moral leadership and clarity, Tangled Webs reaffirms the importance of truth.

Linguistics and Law

Linguistics and Law
Author: Jeffrey P. Kaplan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2019-08-20
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0429832435

Linguistics and Law offers a clear and concise introduction to making sense of the law through linguistics. Drawing on lexical semantics, syntax, and pragmatics to interpret both written and spoken laws, this book: addresses how to interpret legal documents such as contracts, statutes, constitutional provisions and trademarks; provides thorough analyses of "language crimes" including solicitation, perjury, defamation, and conspiracy, as well as talk between police and criminal suspects; analyzes the Miranda warning in depth; tackles the question of whether there is a "language" of the law; draws on real-life case studies to aid understanding. Written in an approachable, conversational style and aimed at undergraduate students with little or no prior knowledge of linguistics or law, this book is essential reading for those approaching this topic for the first time.