United States v. Chaplin
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
25 F.3d 1373 (1994)
The federal government (plaintiff) charged James Chaplin (defendant) with three counts of perjury. Count Two alleged Chaplin lied about paying Joseph Voss $8,000 on a specific date; bank records confirmed the deposit, but Voss testified only that Chaplin paid him sometime that month. Count Three alleged Chaplin lied about storing materials in Voss's garage; Voss gave vague testimony, but a second witness, Al Payment, saw and photographed the materials there. Count Four alleged Chaplin lied about later removing the materials; Voss testified they stayed until early 1992, and another witness saw Chaplin driving away with materials, but no witness tied that removal to Voss's garage specifically. The jury convicted Chaplin on all three counts, and he appealed.
Whether, in a perjury prosecution, the falseness of the defendant's statement can be proven by circumstantial evidence alone or by a single uncorroborated witness's testimony.