Felony vs. Crime vs. Misdemeanor: Tiers, Wobblers, Consequences

In American law, a felony is a type of crime, not a different thing from one. “Crime” is the umbrella term for any act the government can punish, and the law sorts crimes into tiers by severity: felonies at the top, misdemeanors in the middle, and infractions at the bottom. So the real distinction behind the phrase felony vs. crime vs. misdemeanor is that every felony and every misdemeanor is a crime, but the two labels tell you very different things about how serious the offense is and what happens to the person convicted. Federal law draws the main line at one year of possible imprisonment: more than a year makes it a felony; a year or less makes it a misdemeanor or infraction.¹

How the Three Tiers Are Defined

The dividing lines are built around the maximum possible sentence, not the sentence actually imposed. Under the federal classification system:¹

A felony is any offense carrying more than one year of imprisonment.
A misdemeanor is any offense carrying more than five days but not more than one year.
An infraction is any offense carrying five days or less, or no imprisonment at all.

Where you serve time tracks the label. Felony sentences are typically served in state or federal prisons. Misdemeanor sentences are served in local or county jails. Infractions almost never involve custody at all; most are resolved by paying a fine.

States broadly follow this structure, though the exact cutoffs and names vary. The practical effect is the same: the tier a charge falls into controls where you’d go, for how long, and what else happens to you after.

What Makes an Offense a Felony

Felonies cover the most serious conduct the criminal law reaches. Homicide, armed robbery, kidnapping, and large-scale drug trafficking are the familiar examples, but the category is broader than violent crime. Property offenses cross into felony territory once the dollar value exceeds a state-set threshold. Those thresholds range from as low as $200 in some states to $2,500 in others, with $1,000 the most common cutoff. Because many states haven’t adjusted their thresholds for inflation, thefts that would have been misdemeanors a generation ago are now felonies in the same jurisdictions.¹

Federal law grades felonies into five classes based on the maximum prison exposure:

Class A: life imprisonment or death
Class B: 25 years or more
Class C: 10 to less than 25 years
Class D: 5 to less than 10 years
Class E: more than 1 year but less than 5 years

Grand Jury Charging

Federal felony charges can’t go to trial until a grand jury has reviewed the prosecution’s evidence and returned an indictment. That’s a Fifth Amendment requirement, and it applies only in federal court. States can use grand juries, and about half do for at least some felony cases, but they’re free to charge felonies through a preliminary hearing before a judge instead.² Misdemeanors skip this entirely; a prosecutor files a complaint or information directly with the court.

Repeat Felonies Compound

Felony convictions stack. Many states and the federal system have habitual offender or “three strikes” laws that sharply escalate sentences for people with prior felonies. Under a typical three-strikes framework, a second felony doubles the sentence and a third can trigger a mandatory 25 years to life. Specifics vary, but the pattern is uniform: each new felony closes more doors and adds more time.

What Makes an Offense a Misdemeanor

Misdemeanors sit in the middle. They’re serious enough to warrant possible jail time, but not serious enough for prison. Maximum custody is generally one year, served locally. Simple assault, petty theft, disorderly conduct, and first-offense drunk driving are familiar examples.

Federal law splits misdemeanors into three classes:¹

Class A: more than six months but not more than one year
Class B: more than 30 days but not more than six months
Class C: more than 5 days but not more than 30 days

Fines vary by jurisdiction and offense. In practice, many misdemeanor sentences involve probation rather than jail, with conditions like community service, drug testing, mandatory counseling, restitution, or no-contact orders. Violating those conditions can result in the suspended jail time being imposed.

Procedural rights also start to shift at this level. The Sixth Amendment guarantees a jury trial for any offense carrying more than six months of possible imprisonment, so Class A misdemeanor defendants get a jury; defendants charged with lower-level misdemeanors may be tried before a judge alone.³ The right to appointed counsel attaches in any case where jail time is actually imposed, so a misdemeanor defendant facing no real possibility of incarceration generally has no right to a public defender.⁴ Felony defendants always qualify.

Infractions and Why They Often Aren’t “Criminal”

Infractions are the lowest tier. Speeding, parking violations, jaywalking, and seatbelt tickets are the usual examples. Most carry only a monetary fine, and many jurisdictions treat them as civil matters rather than criminal ones, meaning they generally don’t produce a criminal record.¹ Because there’s no real risk of jail, there’s no constitutional right to appointed counsel, and most people resolve infractions by paying the fine without ever appearing in court.⁴

Wobblers: Offenses That Can Go Either Way

Some offenses don’t sit cleanly in one tier. These are called “wobblers” because the prosecutor can charge them as a felony or a misdemeanor depending on the facts, the harm, and the defendant’s history. Assault is the classic example. A shoving match that leaves minor bruising might be charged as a misdemeanor; the same confrontation that breaks a jaw or involves a weapon can be charged as a felony. Many drug possession offenses also wobble based on quantity. The prosecutor’s charging decision in a wobbler case is one of the most consequential moments in the process, because the gap between a misdemeanor and a felony reshapes a defendant’s life far beyond the sentence itself.

Why the Felony Label Matters Long After Sentencing

This is where the practical difference between felony and misdemeanor really lives. The sentence ends; the felony label doesn’t.

Firearms

Federal law bars anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison from possessing a firearm or ammunition.⁵ It’s a lifetime ban in most cases, and it applies whether or not the underlying felony involved a weapon. A felony fraud conviction carries the same firearm prohibition as armed robbery.

Voting

Felony disenfranchisement varies sharply by state. A few jurisdictions never revoke voting rights, even during incarceration. Most restore them automatically on release. Some extend the restriction through parole or probation, and a handful impose indefinite disenfranchisement for certain offenses, sometimes requiring a governor’s pardon to restore the right. Misdemeanor convictions almost never affect voting rights.

Jury Service

Federal law disqualifies anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison from serving on a grand or petit jury unless their civil rights have been restored.⁶ Most states have equivalent restrictions, and regaining jury eligibility is often harder than regaining the vote.

Employment and Licensing

A felony record shows up on most background checks. The federal Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act prohibits federal agencies and contractors from asking about criminal history before making a conditional job offer, but private-sector rules vary by state and locality.⁷ Many states have “ban the box” laws that delay the criminal history question until later in the hiring process, but a felony can still disqualify an applicant once it’s disclosed. Professional licensing boards in healthcare, law, education, real estate, and finance routinely deny or revoke licenses based on felony convictions, and they operate independently of the criminal courts.

Clearing a Record

Whether an old conviction can be removed depends heavily on the tier. Infractions often don’t create a lasting record. Misdemeanors are generally easier to seal or expunge than felonies.

At the federal level, there’s almost no general authority to expunge or seal a conviction. The first federal statutory expungement authority, enacted in 2026, applies only to survivors of human trafficking. State laws vary widely: some allow sealing of most felony convictions after waiting periods of two to ten years, others limit relief to misdemeanors and low-level felonies, and a handful of states have no sealing mechanism for adult convictions at all.

About 13 states and jurisdictions have passed “Clean Slate” laws that automatically seal eligible records after a waiting period, usually covering most misdemeanors and some low-level felonies. Serious violent offenses and sex crimes are almost universally excluded. A proposed federal Clean Slate Act would create the first federal record-sealing mechanism for low-level convictions but had not been enacted as of early 2026.

If you have a felony on your record, checking what your state actually offers is worth doing. The difference between a visible record and a sealed one can decide whether you get the apartment, the job, or the license.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3559 – Sentencing Classification of Offenses
2
Constitution Annotated. Grand Jury Clause Doctrine and Practice
3
Constitution Annotated. Amdt6.4.1 Overview of Right to Trial by Jury
4
Constitution Annotated. Amdt6.6.3.1 Overview of When the Right to Counsel Applies
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1865 – Qualifications for Jury Service
7
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Arrest and Conviction Records – Resources for Job Seekers, Workers