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Afelony is traditionally considered acrime of highseriousness, whereas amisdemeanor is regarded as less serious.[1] The term "felony" originated from Englishcommon law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resulted in the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods, to which additional punishments, includingcapital punishment, could be added;[2] other crimes were called misdemeanors. Following conviction of a felony in a court of law, a person may be described as afelon or aconvicted felon.
In manycommon lawjurisdictions, such as England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, crimes are no longer classified as felonies or misdemeanors. Instead, crimes are classified by mode of trial asindictable offences, triable by jury, which are usually more serious, andsummary offences, triable by summary procedure without a jury, which are usually less serious.[citation needed]
In somecivil law jurisdictions, such as Italy and Spain, the termdelict is used to describe serious offenses, a category similar to common law felony. In other nations, such as Germany, France, Belgium, and Switzerland, more serious offenses are described as 'crimes', while 'misdemeanors' or 'delicts' (ordélits) are less serious. In still others, such as Brazil and Portugal, 'crimes' and 'delicts' are synonymous (more serious) and are opposed tocontraventions (less serious).
In theUnited States, where the felony–misdemeanor distinction is still widely applied, the federal government defines a felony as a crime punishable by death or imprisonment in excess of one year.[3] If punishable by exactly one year or less, it is classified as a misdemeanor. The classification is based upon a crime's potential sentence, so a crime remains classified as a felony even if a defendant convicted of a felony receives a sentence of one year or less.[4] Some individual states classify crimes by other factors, such as seriousness or context.
In the United States, a felony is a crime that is punishable by death or more than one year inprison.[5]
Under common law, felonies were crimes punishable by either death,forfeiture ofproperty, or both. While felony charges remain serious, concerns ofproportionality (i.e., that the punishment fits the crime) have since prompted legislatures to require or permit the imposition of less serious punishments, ranging from lesser terms ofimprisonment to the substitution of ajail sentence or even thesuspension of all incarceration contingent upon a defendant's successful completion ofprobation.[6][7][8] Standards for measurement of an offense's seriousness include attempts[9] to quantitatively estimate and compare the effects of a crime upon its specific victims or society generally.
The reform of harsh felony laws that had originated in Great Britain was deemed "one of the first fruits of liberty" after the United States became independent.[10]
Felonies may include but are not limited to the following:
Some offenses, though similar in nature, may be felonies or misdemeanors depending on the circumstances. For example, the illegal manufacture, distribution or possession of controlled substances may be a felony, although possession of small amounts may be only amisdemeanor. Possession of a deadly weapon may be generally legal, but carrying the same weapon into a restricted area such as a school may be viewed as a serious offense, regardless of whether there is intent to use the weapon. Additionally,driving under the influence in some US states may be a misdemeanor if a first offense, but a felony on subsequent offenses.
In much of the United States, all or most felonies are placed into one of various classes according to their seriousness and their potential punishment upon conviction. The number of classifications and the corresponding crimes vary by state and are determined by the legislature. Usually, the legislature also determines the maximum punishment allowable for each felony class; doing so avoids the necessity of defining specific sentences for every possible crime. For example:
Some felonies are classified asforcible or violent, typically because they contain some element of force or a threat of force against a person and are subject to additional penalties.Burglary is also classified as a forcible felony in some jurisdictions including Illinois[15] and Florida.[16]
In many parts of the United States, a felon can experiencelong-term legal consequences persisting after the end of their imprisonment. The status and designation as a "felon" is considered permanent and is not extinguished uponsentence completion even ifparole,probation orearly release was given.[17] The status can be cleared only by a successfulappeal orexecutive clemency. However, felons may qualify for restoration of some rights after a certain period of time has passed.[18][19]
The consequences felons experience in most states include:
Additionally, manyjob applications and rental applications ask about felony history (a practice forbidden in theCommonwealth of Massachusetts),[22] and answering dishonestly can be grounds for rejection of the application or termination of employment if the lie is discovered after hire. Convicted felons may not be eligible for certain professional licenses or bonds,[23] while hiring them may raise the cost of an employer's insurance.
It is broadly legal to discriminate against felons inhiring[24] and leasing decisions (although a blanket ban on renting to felons may violate federalhousing law),[25] so felons can face barriers to finding both jobs and housing. Moreover, a common term of parole agreements is to avoid association with other felons. In some neighborhoods with high rates of felony conviction, this creates a situation in which many felons live under a constant threat of being arrested for violating parole.[17] Banks may refuse to issue loans to felons, and a felony conviction may prevent employment in banking or finance.[26]
In some states, restoration of those rights depends on repayment of various fees associated with the felon's arrest, processing, and prison stay, such as restitution to victims, or outstanding fines.[17]
The primary means of restoring civil rights that are lost as a result of a felony conviction areexecutive clemency andexpungement.
For state law convictions, expungement is determined by the law of the state. Many states do not allow expungement, regardless of the offense, though felons can seek pardons and clemency, potentially including restoration of rights.[27]
Federal law does not have any provision for persons convicted of federal felonies in a federalUnited States district court to apply to have their record expunged.[28] At present the only relief that an individual convicted of a felony in federal court may receive is a presidentialpardon, which does not expunge the conviction, but rather grants relief from thecivil disabilities that stem from it.[28][29]
In the law of Cameroon, a felony is a crime for which the maximum sentence is more than 10 years, ordeath.[30] Felonies are distinguished from misdemeanors (maximum sentence from 10 days to 10 years) and offenses (not exceeding 10 days).[31] While lesser crimes are tried before a magistrate's court, felonies must be tried before a high court (tribunal de grande instance).[32]
The drafters of the bilingual Cameroonian penal code of 1967 based their work onFrench law andNigerian law. In the case of felonies, they chose to set the threshold for felonies much higher than under either French law (five years) or Nigerian law (three years). This had the effect of greatly reducing the number of felonies under Cameroonian law. It also reduced the number of crimes that were subject totrial by jury in the courts of East Cameroon at that time.[33]
Sir William Blackstone wrote in the 18th century that felony "comprises every species of crime, which occasioned at common law the forfeiture of lands or goods".[34] The wordfelony was feudal in origin, denoting the value of a man's entire property: "the consideration for which a man gives up his fief".[35][a] Blackstone refutes the misconception that felony simply means an offense punishable by death, by demonstrating that not every felony is capital, and not everycapital offense is a felony. However he concedes that "the idea of felony is indeed so generally connected with that of capital punishment, that we find it hard to separate them; and to this usage the interpretations of the law do now conform."[34]
The death penalty for felony could be avoided by pleadingbenefit of clergy, which gradually evolved to exempt everybody (whether clergy or not) from that punishment for a first offense, except forhigh treason and offenses expressly excluded by statute. During the 19th century criminal law reform incrementally reduced the number of capital offences (seeCapital punishment in the United Kingdom), and forfeiture for felony was abolished by theForfeiture Act 1870. Consequently, the distinction between felony and misdemeanor became increasingly arbitrary. The surviving differences consisted of different rules of evidence and procedure, and theLaw Commission recommended that felonies be abolished altogether. This was done by theCriminal Law Act 1967, which set the criminal practice for all crimes as that of misdemeanor and introduced a new system of classifying crimes as either "arrestable" and "non-arrestable" offenses (according to which a general power of arrest was available for crimes punishable by five years' imprisonment or more).
Arrestable offenses were abolished in 2006,[37] and today crimes are classified asindictable orsummary offenses, the only distinction being the mode of trial (by jury in theCrown Court or summarily in amagistrates' court, respectively).
TheTrials for Felony Act 1836 (6 & 7 Will. 4 c. 114) allowed persons indicted for felonies to be represented by counsel or attorney.
A person being prosecuted for this was called aprisoner, though increasingly "accused" or "defendant" was preferred.[38]
A felony (Verbrechen, a word also translated in less technical contexts as simply "crime") is defined in theStrafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code, StGB) as an unlawful act (rechtswidrige Tat) that is punishable with a minimum of one year's imprisonment.[39] A misdemeanor (Vergehen) is any other crime punishable by imprisonment with a minimum of less than one year or by fine.[40]
However, in some cases a severe version of a misdemeanor may be punished with imprisonment of more than one year, yet the crime itself remains considered a misdemeanor. The same applies for a milder version of a felony that is punished with imprisonment less than a year.[41]
Anattempt to commit a felony is itself a crime, whereas an attempt to commit a misdemeanor is a crime only if specifically prescribed as such by law.[42]
InIrish law the distinction between felony and misdemeanor was abolished by section 3 of the Criminal Law Act, 1997, such that the law previously applied to misdemeanors was extended to all offenses.[43][44] MinisterJoan Burton, introducing the bill in theSeanad, said "The distinction has been eroded over many years and in today's conditions has no real relevance. Today, for example, serious offenses such asfraudulent conversion and obtaining property byfalse pretenses are classified as misdemeanors whereas a relatively trivial offense such as stealing a bar of chocolate is a felony."[45] The 1997 Act, modeled on the EnglishCriminal Law Act 1967, introduced the category of "arrestable offense" for those with penalties of five years' imprisonment or greater.[43][45]
The1937 Constitution declares that theparliamentary privilege, which protectsOireachtas members from arrest traveling to or from the legislature, does not apply to "treason, felony, andbreach of the peace".[46] The 1996 Constitutional Review Group recommended replacing "felony" with "serious criminal offence".[47]
Any offense punishable by death or imprisonment for more than one year is called a felony. Felonies are the most serious crimes.
Part of thecommon law series | ||
| Classes of crimes |  | |
| Inchoate offences | ||
| Defences | ||
| Offences against the person or state | ||
| Sexual offences | ||
| Criminal libel and kindred offences | ||
| Offences against property | ||
| Forgery, personation and cheating | ||
| Offences against justice | ||
| Death against family honour | ||
| Criminal behaviour |
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Types ofcrime | ||
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Note: Crimes vary byjurisdiction. Not all types are listed here. | ||
| Classes | ||
| Against the person |
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| Againstproperty | ||
| Against the public | ||
| Against thestate | ||
| Againstjustice | ||
| Against animals | ||
| Sexual offenses | ||
| Inchoate offenses | ||
