Obstruction of justice in the United States

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Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Criminal law In United States jurisdictions, obstruction of justice refers to a number of offenses that involve unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investigators, or other government officials. Common law jurisdictions other than the United States tend to use the wider offense of perverting the course of justice.

Obstruction is a broad crime that may include acts such as perjury, making false statements to officials, witness tampering, jury tampering, destruction of evidence, and many others. Obstruction also applies to overt coercion of court or government officials via the means of threats or actual physical harm, and to deliberate sedition against a court official to undermine the appearance of legitimate authority.Template:Citation needed

Obstruction of justice is an umbrella term covering a variety of specific crimes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Black's Law Dictionary defines it as any "interference with the orderly administration of law and justice".<ref>Template:Cite report</ref> Obstruction has been categorized by various sources as a process crime,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> a public-order crime,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> or a white-collar crime.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Obstruction can include crimes committed by judges, prosecutors, attorneys general, and elected officials in general.

Federal law

In federal law, crimes constituting obstruction of justice are defined primarily in Chapter 73 of Title 18 of the United States Code.<ref name=riley>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Usc-title-chap</ref> This chapter contains provisions covering various specific crimes such as witness tampering and retaliation, jury tampering, destruction of evidence, assault on a process server, and theft of court records.<ref name=decker65>Template:Cite journal</ref> It also includes more general sections covering obstruction of proceedings in federal courts, Congress,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and federal executive agencies.<ref name=decker65 /> One of the broadest provisions in the chapter, known as the Omnibus Clause, states that anyone who "corruptly... endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice" in connection with a pending court proceeding is subject to punishment.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Statistics regarding the frequency of obstruction of justice prosecutions are unclear.<ref name=hill>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 2004, federal agencies arrested 446 people for obstruction, representing 0.3 percent of all federal arrests.<ref>Template:Cite report</ref> This does not include, however, people who were charged with obstruction in addition to a more serious underlying crime.<ref name=hill />

Sentencing enhancement

Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, a defendant convicted of any crime is subject to a more severe sentence if they are found to have obstructed justice by impeding the investigation or prosecution of their crimes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> While a separate conviction for the crime of obstruction would require proof beyond a reasonable doubt, a finding of obstruction for sentencing purposes only needs to meet the looser standard of "a preponderance of the evidence" (unless the enhanced sentence would exceed the statutory maximum sentence for the underlying crime).<ref>Template:Cite report</ref>

An obstruction finding adds two levels to the offender's sentence, which can result in as much as an additional 68 months of prison.<ref>Template:Cite report</ref> In 2017, the obstruction enhancement was applied in 1,319 cases, representing 2.1 percent of all sentences issued in federal courts.<ref>Template:Cite report</ref>

State law

State laws regarding obstruction of justice vary widely. A 2004 survey found that 24 states and the District of Columbia had a general statute criminalizing obstruction of justice or obstruction of government functions in broad terms, similar to those found in federal law.<ref name="decker65"/> All states have laws prohibiting some specific types of obstruction, such as witness tampering, jury tampering, or destruction of evidence.<ref name="decker65"/>

History

From the creation of the federal courts by the Judiciary Act of 1789, judges had the power to summarily punish those who obstructed justice by holding them in contempt of court.<ref name=venue>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=fitzpatrick>Template:Cite journal</ref>

A scandal in 1830 led to reform of the contempt law and the creation of obstruction of justice as a separate offense. Federal judge James H. Peck imprisoned a lawyer for contempt for publishing a letter criticizing one of Peck's opinions. In an effort to prevent such abuses, Congress passed a law in 1831 limiting the application of the summary contempt procedures to offenses committed in or near the court. A new section, which survives today as the Omnibus Clause, was added to punish contempt committed outside of the court, but only after indictment and trial by jury.<ref name=venue /><ref name=fitzpatrick />

In 1982, in response to concerns that the obstruction law did not provide adequate protection to crime victims and other witnesses, Congress broadened the law against witness tampering and criminalized retaliation against witnesses, as part of the Victim and Witness Protection Act.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 strengthened the obstruction laws regarding destruction of evidence before an investigation or proceeding has begun, in response to accounting firm Arthur Andersen's widely reported shredding of documents related to the Enron scandal.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Notable examples

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  • Trevor Jacob, a YouTuber and light aircraft pilot, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in 2023 after having illegally disposed of the wreckage of an aircraft he had filmed himself deliberately crashing as a publicity stunt in 2021.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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See also

Footnotes

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Further reading

  • Ohlin. "Obstruction of Justice". Criminal Law: Doctrine, Application, and Practice. Aspen Casebook Series. Third Edition. Page 462 et seq.
  • Ellen S Podgor, "Obstruction of Justice: Redesigning the Shortcut" (2020-2021) 46 Brigham Young University Law Review 657
  • Joseph V De Marco, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Courthouse: Mens Rea, Document Destruction, and the Federal Obstruction of Justice Statute" (1992) 67 New York University Law Review 570

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