McCoy Law Firm

What Is a Felony?

In criminal law, a felony is a category of crimes that are often classified as the most serious types of offenses. The main characteristic of a felony is that being found guilty of a felony will result in incarceration for at least one year. Also, the imprisonment will be served in a prison facility rather than a county or local jail establishment. Criminal fines may also be imposed for felony charges, often in the amounts of thousands of dollars.

Under traditional common law, felonies were called “true crimes,” and usually included serious offenses like: homicide, rape, arson, burglary, robbery, larceny, escaping from a prison, and assisting in a felony. Current, state and federal criminal statutes may categorize various other types of crimes as felonies. An expungement is the process a Defendant must endure in order to get the record of a criminal conviction or arrest removed by Court Order. Once the expungement is complete, the record is deemed not to exist and the Defendant may deny the existence of the records for most intents and purposes.