Felony - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition felony

Definition :

Felony [fr. felonie, Fr.; felonia, Lat.; some deduce it fr. Gk., a deceiver, and fallo, Lat., to deceive; Spelman derives it fr. the Teutonic or German fee, a fieu or fiet, and lon, price or value; Coke says, 'Ex vi termini significat quodlibet capitale crimen felleo animo perpetratum,' Co. Litt. 391 a], originally the state of having forfeited lands and goods to the Crown upon conviction for certain offences, and then, by transition, any offence upon conviction for which such forfeiture followed, in addition to any other punishment prescribed by law, as distinguished from misdemeanour, upon conviction for which to forfeiture followed. All indictable offences are either felonies or misdemeanours, but a material part of the distinction is taken away by the Forfeiture Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 23), which abolishes forfeiture for felony, and provides for the administration of the estates of felons while undergoing sentence; see Carr v. Anderson, (1903) 2 Ch 279.

The only remaining distinctions between a felony and a misdemeanour appear to be that there are larger powers of arrest in the case of felony; that it is a crime to conceal a felony (see MISPRISION); that felony must be pleaded to personally; that a jury trying felony may not separate before verdict (this distinction has been done away with, except as to murder, treason, and treason felony, by the Juries Detention Act, 1897 [60 & 61 Vict. c. 18)]; that a person indicted for murder or felony is entitled to peremptorily challenge twenty jurors on the panel (English) (County Juries Act, 1825 (6 Geo. 4, c. 50), s. 29, as controlled by the (English) Criminal Law Act, 1827 (7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 28), s. 3), and the jurors are accordingly sworn singly; that the prisoner on conviction for felony has a right to be heard before judgment; and that peers accused of felony are entitled to be tried by their peers (Earl Russell's case, 1901 AC 446). Lord De Clifford was tried on 12th December, 1935, and on 4th February, 1936, a motion, by the Lord Chancellor, that the present system of trial of peers by peers has outlived its usefulness, was carried by a majority in the House of Lords.

A serious crime usu. punishable by imprisonment for more than one year or by death, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 633.