I'm not from the USA, I thought a felony is a crime at the national level, not the state level? How can a state specify that?
Felony is a more serious crime, misdemeanor is a less serious crime.
But there are federal crimes and state crimes, and we have courts for each.
Felony carries a penalty of imprisonment of a year or more. Misdemeanor is less than a year. Some states have a few crimes classified as elevated misdemeanors and can have slightly longer terms available for sentencing, but those are the exception and they diverge from the history where the terms come from.
Felony is more about severity and consequences.
Misdemeanors punishable by a fine or "short" jail term, and a felony by more than a year in prison.
Felonies can also bring penalities like being barred from certain jobs forever, restrictions on firearm ownership and depending on state loosing the ability to vote.
Below those are things like traffic tickets or citations, which are typically a small fine and don't involve a trial, unless you ask to talk to a judge.
Federal vs state is a question of jurisdiction rather than severity. You don't hear about federal misdemeanors very often because federal prosecutors are more interested in things like "interstate smuggling" than "someone urinated in public on the lawn of the Des Moines Federal building".
Or the weird "shot a burro from a helicopter".
Personally, I think we really need a crackdown on airborne donkey hunting. (/S)
I'm not from the USA, I thought a felony is a crime at the national level, not the state level? How can a state specify that?
Felony is a more serious crime, misdemeanor is a less serious crime.
But there are federal crimes and state crimes, and we have courts for each.
Felony carries a penalty of imprisonment of a year or more. Misdemeanor is less than a year. Some states have a few crimes classified as elevated misdemeanors and can have slightly longer terms available for sentencing, but those are the exception and they diverge from the history where the terms come from.
Felony is more about severity and consequences.
Misdemeanors punishable by a fine or "short" jail term, and a felony by more than a year in prison.
Felonies can also bring penalities like being barred from certain jobs forever, restrictions on firearm ownership and depending on state loosing the ability to vote.
Below those are things like traffic tickets or citations, which are typically a small fine and don't involve a trial, unless you ask to talk to a judge.
Federal vs state is a question of jurisdiction rather than severity. You don't hear about federal misdemeanors very often because federal prosecutors are more interested in things like "interstate smuggling" than "someone urinated in public on the lawn of the Des Moines Federal building".
Or the weird "shot a burro from a helicopter".
Personally, I think we really need a crackdown on airborne donkey hunting. (/S)