And if so, would they get more prison time / a larger fine?
Think of a guilty/not guilty plea as the defense declaring their stance rather than literally saying “I did this” or “I did not do this”. After all there are circumstances in which a person absolutely did the thing they’re accused of but are not actually guilty (self defense) or extenuating circumstances need to be considered (insanity plea).
Perjury requires that a person lied under oath in a specific, provable way. That’s why defense attorneys will sometimes have their client not take the stand or assert their fifth amendment rights in response to certain questions. Making the prosecution prove that the defendant did a thing is fine. Saying “I didn’t do thing X at all” and then having evidence being presented that you did is no bueno.
TL;DR: A not guilty plea basically says “prove it”. Perjury is lying about specifics and it can later be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that you lied about those details.
In Hungary, no. Because you only commit perjury if you are under oath on the stand as a witness. You are not under oath simply defending yourself. As my lawyer said to me once: you can say or lie literally anything you just want.
Same process in the United States
This is common in European countries, but in the US and other common law countries, defendants who choose to testify are under oath like any other witness.
If you testify. But you can always say no to that, do I know it right?
Yes
No.
I love this question.
Also it makes me so angry when serial killers still try to deny their murders years after the fact. The only thing worse than a killer is a lying killer.
Ah, yes, but what about a lying killer who also talks with their mouth full?
Truly diabolical.
speaking with a mouthful of Mike: “What? No. I didn’t kill and then eat Mike.”
I was watching a video recently where a guy denied eating someone so they settled it by going in their stomach, finding his lunch, and DNA testing it. It was indeed the dead guy.
If we assume US centrism here since you didn’t specify country then practically you do get punished for pleasing not guilty. Not because it’s illegal to lie but because if you plead guilty you usually get a shorter sentence.
No, that would be an awful thing to do. You have to allow people to zealously defend themselves from any accusation. Also, in the US, the fifth amendment protects the citizens from being forced to testify against themselves. So punishing someone for pleading not guilty would directly violate the 5th amendment.
