5-16-1. PERJURY.

Any person who, having taken an oath that he will testify, declare, depose, or certify truly before any competent tribunal, officer, or person, in any of the cases in which such an oath may by law be administered, intentionally and contrary to such oath, states any material matter he knows to be false, is guilty of perjury.

A false statement is material, regardless of the admissibility of the statements under rules of evidence, if it could have affected the course or outcome of the proceeding. It is no defense that the declarant mistakenly believed the false statement to be immaterial.

It is no defense to prosecution under this section that the oath or affirmation was administered or taken in an irregular manner or that the declarant was not competent to make the statement.

No person shall be convicted of an offense under this section if he retracted the false statement in the course of the proceedings in which it was made before it became manifest that the falsification was or would be exposed and before the falsification substantially affected the proceeding.

An unqualified statement of that which one does not know or reasonably believe to be true is equivalent to a statement of that which one knows to be false.

Perjury is a Class B crime.