When any person, required to take an oath, from scruples of conscience declines to take it in the usual form or when the court is satisfied that any person called as a witness does not believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, a solemn affirmation may be administered to him in the form of the oath prescribed, except that instead of the word “swear” the words “solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare” shall be used and instead of the words “so help you God” the words “upon the pains and penalties of perjury or false statement” shall be used.
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 1-23
When affirmation may be used
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case State v. Miller (1987)
Most recently applied in State v. Faust (June 1996)
(1949 Rev., S. 3574; 1971, P.A. 871, S. 57.) History: 1971 act added the words “or false statement” to wording of affirmation.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Connecticut General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Connecticut statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.