Examples Of Felonies And Misdemeanors
The US federal government and most of the US states define felonies to be crimes that carry punishments for sentences of over a year. |
Misdemeanors are one notch below felonies. These are usually punished by imposing fines and rarely carry a jail term of one year or less.
Examples of Misdemeanor:
Usual examples of misdemeanor include fourth degree driving while intoxicated (DWI), fifth degree assault and fifth degree domestic assault. Battery, trying to resist arrest and drunkenness in public, vandalism, trespass, petty theft, prostitution and disorderly conduct are few other examples. Petty misdemeanor (not considered to be crime per se as it involves no jail term) is a subset of misdemeanor comprising of speeding tickets, possession of small quantity of marijuana and parking tickets. Another subset, gross misdemeanor, is one step below felony and consists of charges like third degree DWI.
Examples of Felony:
Felony is considered to be graver than misdemeanor. Crimes that usually fall under the category of felony are homicide, rape, kidnapping and burglary. It also incorporates illegal possession and abuse (and or sales) of narcotics, especially narcotics that fall under schedule II like cocaine, methamphetamine, etc. Other examples of felonies include theft of more than $500, evading taxes, severe assault, vandalism and fraud.
Examples of Wobbler:
There are crimes that can be adjudged to be either felonies or misdemeanors, depending upon the circumstances in which the charges are applied. An example of a wobbler would be possessing small amounts of narcotics, which would be viewed as a misdemeanor, but illegal abuse of the narcotic and/or sale of the narcotic would be viewed as a felony.
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