State v. Abrams

¶1

The United States Supreme Court in both Gaudin1 and Johnson2 declared that the materiality of a false statement in a peijury prosecution must be submitted to a jury rather than decided by a trial judge. We must determine whether, under these cases, language in RCW 9A.72.010(1) is constitutionally infirm because it requires the trial judge to determine the materiality of a false statement as a matter of law. If we find this statutory directive invalid, we must determine whether we can sever and strike the offending clause and uphold the remainder of Washington’s peijury statute.

J.M. Johnson,…