Every felony is a crime, but most crimes are not felonies. The difference between a felony and a crime is really a difference of tier: “crime” is the umbrella term for any act the government can punish, and “felony” is the top category inside it, reserved for offenses punishable by more than one year of incarceration.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3559 – Sentencing Classification of Offenses That single threshold reshapes how you are charged, where you serve time, and what your life looks like after the sentence ends.
The Three Tiers of Crime
Criminal law sorts offenses into three levels based on severity.
Infractions sit at the bottom. These are non-criminal violations like minor traffic tickets or littering, punished with a fine. Jail is not on the table, and because no one’s liberty is at stake, you generally have no right to a jury trial or a court-appointed attorney.
Misdemeanors are the middle tier. They cover offenses like simple assault, public intoxication, or low-value shoplifting. Sentences max out at one year or less and are served in a local or county jail rather than a state prison.
Felonies are the top tier: any crime punishable by more than one year of incarceration. Sentences are served in state or federal prisons, and the restrictions that follow a felony conviction can last for decades.
The federal classification statute, 18 U.S.C. § 3559, draws these lines precisely. An offense carrying a maximum of one year or less but more than six months is a Class A misdemeanor. An offense with a maximum of five days or less, or no imprisonment at all, is an infraction. Anything above one year is a felony.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3559 – Sentencing Classification of Offenses
The One-Year Rule
The most important line in criminal law is the one-year mark. A crime punishable by more than one year of incarceration is a felony. A crime punishable by one year or less is a misdemeanor. This holds true even if the judge ultimately imposes probation or a sentence shorter than a year. What matters is the maximum the law allows for the offense, not what you actually receive.
That threshold does work far beyond the courtroom. Federal law uses the “punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year” language as the trigger for firearm bans, jury disqualification, and other consequences. Immigration law draws a similar line when evaluating deportability. Some states have deliberately set their maximum misdemeanor sentence at 364 days to keep defendants just below the federal cutoff.
How Felonies Are Graded
Once an offense crosses the one-year line, the federal system splits felonies into five classes by maximum authorized sentence:1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3559 – Sentencing Classification of Offenses
- Class A: life imprisonment or death.
- Class B: twenty-five years or more.
- Class C: ten years or more but less than twenty-five.
- Class D: five years or more but less than ten.
- Class E: more than one year but less than five. This is the entry point into felony territory.
Many states use a similar letter system or a numerical degree system, with first degree being the most serious. The labels differ; the logic is the same. More harmful conduct lands in higher categories with longer potential sentences.
Wobblers
Not every offense sits cleanly on one side of the line. Many states recognize “wobblers,” crimes a prosecutor can charge as either a felony or a misdemeanor based on the facts, the defendant’s record, and the harm involved. Common wobblers include certain drug possession charges, mid-level theft, assault, and some fraud offenses. In some states a judge can also reduce a felony wobbler to a misdemeanor at sentencing or afterward. Two people who commit the same conduct on paper can end up with very different classifications, and the downstream effects of that choice are significant.
How the Legal Process Changes for a Felony
Procedural protections scale up when the government seeks a felony conviction, because the stakes are higher.
Grand Jury
The Fifth Amendment requires that federal felony charges be approved by a grand jury before trial. Citizens review the prosecution’s evidence and decide whether there is enough to indict.2Legal Information Institute. Grand Jury Clause Doctrine and Practice About half of states require a grand jury for at least some felonies; the rest let prosecutors file charges directly through an “information,” often after a preliminary hearing. Misdemeanors and infractions skip this step.
Right to a Lawyer
If you cannot afford counsel for a felony, the government must provide one. The Supreme Court established this rule in Gideon v. Wainwright, holding that the right to counsel is fundamental to a fair trial in all felony prosecutions, state or federal.3Justia. Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963) For misdemeanors, the right to appointed counsel kicks in only if the judge actually imposes jail time. For infractions, there is no right to appointed counsel at all.
Right to a Jury Trial
The Sixth Amendment guarantees a jury trial for any non-petty offense.4Congress.gov. Amdt6.4.1 Overview of Right to Trial by Jury Every felony qualifies. Most misdemeanors do too, as long as potential jail time is involved. Infractions, with fines only, fall below the threshold.
Statute of Limitations
Prosecutors have a limited window to file charges. Under federal law, non-capital felonies carry a general five-year statute of limitations from the date of the offense.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3282 – Offenses Not Capital Misdemeanors in many jurisdictions carry shorter deadlines. Certain serious felonies, like murder, have no statute of limitations at all.
What a Felony Costs You After the Sentence
The prison term is only the beginning. The web of restrictions that outlast a felony sentence is what truly separates it from a misdemeanor in practical terms.
Firearms
Federal law bars anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year of imprisonment from possessing a firearm.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 922 – Unlawful Acts It is effectively a lifetime ban with narrow exceptions, and the federal government offers no general process for restoring firearm rights. Some states allow restoration under specific conditions, but the federal prohibition still applies on its own.
Voting
Only two states and the District of Columbia let people vote while incarcerated for a felony. Everywhere else, a felony conviction causes at least a temporary loss of voting rights. About half of states restore them automatically on release from prison; others require completion of parole and probation first; a few require a separate application or action by the governor, and some convictions can result in permanent disenfranchisement.7Vote.gov. Voting After a Felony Conviction Misdemeanor convictions do not affect voting rights in any state.
Employment
Felony convictions make hiring harder than misdemeanors do, because many employers, licensing boards, and government agencies screen specifically for felonies.8National Institute of Justice. In Search of a Job: Criminal Records as Barriers to Employment Fields like law, medicine, education, and financial services commonly bar applicants with felony records, though a growing number of states now require licensing boards to weigh the nature of the offense and the time passed instead of imposing blanket bans.
Jury Service
A felony conviction disqualifies you from federal jury service unless your civil rights have been restored. The qualification statute excludes anyone who “has been convicted in a State or Federal court of record of, a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than one year.”9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1865 – Qualifications for Jury Service Most states apply a similar rule for state juries.
Housing and Other Fallout
A felony record complicates housing applications, particularly for federally subsidized housing. Federal law does not impose a blanket ban on tenants with felony convictions, but it does allow housing providers to exclude applicants convicted of manufacturing or distributing controlled substances. Many private landlords run background checks and treat felony convictions as a basis for denial. Some states and cities have passed “fair chance” housing laws that limit how landlords can use criminal history.
A felony conviction can also trigger DNA collection, affect child custody proceedings, change immigration status, and limit eligibility for certain federal benefits and public office. Misdemeanors carry some of these consequences too, but in nearly every category the felony label makes the restriction harsher and the path back longer.
Clearing a Felony Record
Most states offer some way to clear or seal criminal records, but the process is much easier for misdemeanors than for felonies. Misdemeanor waiting periods are shorter, eligibility rules are more generous, and more offense types qualify. Felony expungement, where it exists at all, usually requires a waiting period of several years after sentence completion, and many serious felonies — violent offenses, sex offenses, offenses against children — are permanently ineligible.
The specifics vary widely. Some states have adopted “clean slate” laws that automatically seal certain records after a set period with no new convictions. Others require you to petition a court and persuade a judge that sealing serves the interest of justice. If you are carrying a felony conviction and want to know whether relief is available, check your state’s eligibility rules for the specific offense and sentence you received. The waiting period alone can run from under a year to nearly a decade depending on where you live and what you were convicted of.