In California, a felony is any crime where the sentence may include a term is State Prison. At the low end of the felony scale, there are cases that may be charged either as felonies or misdemeanors. At the upper end, there is murder with special circumstances where the prosecution seeks the death penalty or life without the possibility of parole.
At the low end, the punishment may be formal probation, which may or may not include a term in the County Jail. If a County Jail term is included, the maximum length of such a term is one year, known as a county lid, or simply as a “bullet.” County time does not have to be a year, but a year is the maximum. If, after that, the defendant violates the terms of probation, he may be sent to State Prison for either the low term, mid term or upper term of the given offense, minus credit for time served in County Jail.
After serving a term in State Prison, a defendant is on Parole, and may be sent back to prison for violating Parole conditions for up to one year for each violation.
If, within 5 years of being released from State Prison, a defendant picks up a new felony, the prosecutor may charge a one year sentencing enhancement. This is cumulative, so that repeat offenders can pick up many such one year enhancements.
Felony sentencing includes an order to pay between $200.00 and $10,000.00 to the victim’s restitution fund, and if appropriate, pay actual restitution to any victim. The court will also order the payment of statutory fees and other assessments.
Certain felony convictions require the convict to register with the local police agency as, for instance, an arson offender, gang member, narcotics offender or sex offender. Failure to register, and to keep the registration current is a separate felony. Convicts must also provide DNA samples, two blood specimens, a saliva specimen, a right thumb print, and a palm print, for identification purposes, and a failure to do so constitutes a new criminal offense. Felons must not own, use or possess firearms. Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon is a new felony. Felony convictions have serious immigration consequences for persons who are not citizens of the United States.
At the high end, felonies can result in multiple life terms. These cases include murder and three strikes cases. Even the sentencing enhancements can add decades to the prison terms. Plea bargains in such cases are rare. Who would agree to a 50 year-to-life plea bargain?
Not all felonies count toward the Three Strikes law, only those that are considered serious or violent offenses. Sometimes it doesn’t take much for a person to be convicted of a serious or violent offense. For instance, I was defending a second strike case, where the prior serious or violent offense was nothing more than my client running his mouth off in front of some police officers, who took his careless muttering as a threat. They arrested him, and charged him with making terrorist threats. At the time of his arraignment, he was in custody represented by a public defender. He was told that if he agreed to plead guilty to the serious and violent felony, he would be out of jail immediately and placed on probation. He took the deal. That is how he got his “strike prior.” When I represented him, he was charged with being a felon in possession of a fire arm, as a second strike. I filed a motion to strike the prior conviction, to reduce his exposure on the charge by half. The judge denied the motion. We went to trial and got a hung jury. Just before his second trial, the prosecutor made him a plea bargain offer that he could not refuse.
There is much more to know about felonies. If you or your loved one is charged with a felony, call as soon as possible for a consultation.