Affirmation

practice, a solemn declaration and asseveration, which a witness makes before an officer competent to administer an oath in a like case, to tell the truth as if he had been sworn. In the United: States, generally, all witnesses who declare themselves conscientiously scrupulous against taking a corporal oath are permitted to make a solemn affirmation, and this ‘in all cases,-as well criminal as civil. For the violation of the truth in such case, the witness is subject to the punishment of perjury as if he had been sworn.