Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Expert Perjury Watch -- DOJ Subornation Edition

One week before his scheduled expert testimony in the government's RICO suit against the tobacco companies, high-ranking officials in the Department of Justice pressured Harvard University business professor Max H. Bazerman to back off his recommendation that the court consider ousting top tobacco company management as a remedial measure, according to a Washington Post story.

He refused. The Post quotes his reasons:

"I would have felt I was lying under oath, and I couldn't do that," Bazerman said. "I thought then, and I believe now, that it was inappropriate influence to weaken the government's case against the tobacco industry."
Bazerman was ultimately allowed to testify.

posted by pn at 11:04 AM  

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Fed. R. Evid. 702: If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise, if (1) the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case.