Criminal Law Review

Most people don’t understand the difference between a felony and misdemeanor. Sure, they understand that a felony is a more severe offense, but where is the line between the two? If you look it up in the dictionary, a felony is a crime in which a person is convicted and they are sentenced to serve over one year in a state prison or more than two and a half years in federal prison. In reality, they usually actually serve less than that because the judge will knock the sentence down or they will get out early for good behavior. So if someone is a convicted felon, that means they were tried in court, then either pleaded guilty or were found guilty. These are very serious offenses and include such ones as rape, murder, assault, kidnapping, arson, and many others. The question, then, is how to conduct a felony records search to see if someone has one, and what were the results of the trial and conviction if they do?

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