Felony

From Free net encyclopedia

This article appears to contradict itself.
Please improve the article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

A felony, in many common law legal systems, is the term for a "very serious" crime, whereas misdemeanors are considered to be less serious offenses.

Crimes which are commonly considered to be felonies include, but are not limited to: aggravated assault, arson, burglary, murder, and rape. Those who are convicted of a felony are known as felons. Originally, felonies were crimes for which the punishment was either death or forfeiture of property. In modern times felons can receive punishments which range in severity; from probation, to imprisonment, to execution. In the United States felons often receive additional punishments such as the loss of voting rights, exclusion from certain lines of work, prohibition from obtaining certain licenses, exclusion from purchase/possession of firearms or ammunition, and ineligibility to run for or be elected to public office. In addition, some states consider a felony conviction to be grounds for an uncontested divorce. These, among other losses of privileges not included explicitly in sentencing, are known as collateral consequences of criminal charges.

The distinction between a felony and misdemeanor has been abolished by some common law jurisdictions (e.g. Crimes Act 1958 (Vic., Australia) s. 332B(1), Crimes Act 1900 (NSW., Australia) s. 580E(1)); other jurisdictions maintain the distinction, notably those of the United States. Those jurisdictions which have abolished the distinction generally adopt some other classification, e.g. in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom the crimes are divided into summary offences and indictable offences.

[edit]

The United States

In many jurisdictions of the United States, a felony is any offense carrying a potential penalty of more than one year in prison. An offense carrying a lesser sentence is usually a misdemeanor. In Massachusetts, on the other hand, a felony is any offense which carries any prison time.[1] Some states have done away with the felony/misdemeanor classification. For example, New Jersey designates offenses as first degree through fourth degree. A third degree offense is punishable by six months to eighteen months in jail.

U.S. jurisdictions retaining the distinction between a felony and a misdemeanor sometimes divide felonies into classes, e.g. class A felony, class B felony, etc.

A civil sanction imposed on U.S. citizens convicted of a felony includes the loss of competence to serve on a grand or petit jury or to vote in elections even after release from prison. While controversial, these disabilities are explicitly sanctioned by the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution Template:Fact, a Reconstruction-era amendment that deals with permissible state regulation of voting rights. However the convicted person may regain his ability to serve as a juror and vote as part of a general restoration of civil rights following completion of sentence. In addition, convicted felons are prohibited by federal law from possessing firearms, a sanction which is not usually remitted upon completion of sentence, but which may be annulled by a pardon of the offense.

Theoretically, federal law allows persons convicted of felonies in a federal United States district court to apply to have their record expunged after a certain period of time with a clean record. However, the U.S. Congress has refused to fund the federal agency mandated with handling the applications of convicted felons to have their record expunged. This means that, in practice, federal felons cannot have their records expunged.

As of January 2006, a bill (H.R. 4437) has been proposed which, if approved to law, would make illegal immigration a felony. This is mostly in response to increased illegal alien traffic from Mexico.Template:Fact It no doubt would create great controversy before it had a chance at becoming law.

[edit]