Minnesota Statutes 3.14 – Contempts
Each house may punish, as a contempt, a breach of its privileges, or of the privileges of its members, but only for the following offenses:
Terms Used In Minnesota Statutes 3.14
- Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, and to partnerships and other unincorporated associations. See Minnesota Statutes 645.44
- Testify: Answer questions in court.
- Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
(1) arresting or causing to be arrested, a member or officer in violation of the member’s privilege from arrest;
(2) disorderly conduct in its view and presence, or in the view and presence of any of its committees, tending to interrupt its proceedings;
(3) giving or offering a bribe to a member, or attempting by menace or corrupt or improper means, directly or indirectly, to control or influence a member in giving or withholding the member’s vote.
No person shall be excused from attending and testifying before either house of the legislature, or a committee of either house, for an alleged offense upon an investigation of giving or offering a bribe, or attempting by menace or corrupt or improper means, directly or indirectly, to control or influence a member in giving or withholding the member’s vote upon the ground that the person’s required testimony or evidence, documentary or otherwise, may tend to convict the person of a crime or subject the person to a penalty. No person shall be prosecuted, or subjected to a penalty for a transaction, matter, or thing concerning which the person may so testify, or produce evidence, documentary or otherwise. No testimony, so given or produced, shall be received against the person in any criminal investigation or proceeding.