Classifications and Penalties of Felony Charges

Felonies are serious crimes in the United States. Felonies usually involve the confiscation of a convicted person’s land and goods. The Federal government offers the definition of a felony as a crime which involves a punishment which is generally of one year or longer in prison.

Felony crimes include but are not limited to aggravated assault or battery, arson, illegal drug use or sales, burglary, grand theft, robbery, rape and murder. Felonies can be broadly categorized as either violent or non-violent offenses.  Offenses may be classified as misdemeanors or felonies depending on the circumstances. Instances like illegal manufacture, distribution or possession of controlled substances may fall under felony, although possession of the same substances in lesser amounts may fall under misdemeanor.

Felony Classifications

In some states in the United States felonies are classified as Class A, B, C and so on according to their seriousness and punishment. For instance, in New York State the classes of felonies are categorized as E, D, C, B, A II, and A I which is the most severe of all.

Felonies and misdemeanors both are classified with corresponding letters. Class A felony offenses are the most severe and punishment decreases with subsequent classes. Certain criminal charges carry other mandatory punishments (maximum or minimum). Felony penalties vary by state law, but may include:

Class A Felony – Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The only way to get parole is if the governor commutes the sentence.

Class B Felony – 25 years of imprisonment.

Class C Felony – 10 years of imprisonment and a fine of $1,000 to $10,000.

Class D Felony – 5 years of imprisonment and a fine of $750 to $7,500

Types of Felonies

As per the Texas judicial assessment at http://www.courts.state.tx.us/oca/jnas/, felonies are divided in to two groups.

Felony Group A: This includes capital murder, murder, other homicides, attempted murder, assault, sexual assault of an adult, indecency or sexual assault of a child, arson and robbery or aggravated robbery.

- Capital murder is an offense under Penal Code Section 19.03.
- Murder is an offense under Penal Code Section 19.04.
- Other Homicides falls under Penal Code Section 19.04, which is manslaughter, 19.05, criminally negligent homicide and 49.08 which is intoxication manslaughter.
- Aggravated assault or attempted murder is an offense which falls under Penal Code Section 22.01, Assault or 22.04, injury to a child, or disabled individual or elderly individual.
- Indecency or sexual assault of a child is an offense which falls under Penal Code Section 22.011.
- Family Violence Assault falls under Penal Code Section 22.01(b) (2).
- Aggravated robbery which falls under Penal Code Section 29.03.
- Arson falls under Penal Code Section 28.02.

Felony Group B: This includes burglary like theft, drug sale or manufacture, drug possession, felony DWI, auto theft and others.

- Burglary fall under Penal Code Section 30.02
- Theft falls under Penal Code Section 31.03
- Automobile theft falls under Penal Code Section 31.03.
- Drug sale or manufacture fall under the Texas Controlled Substances Act.
- DWI felony falls under Penal Code Section 49.04.

There are also certain white collar crimes that are felony offenses which include kickbacks, tax evasion, bribery embezzlement, identity theft, antitrust, insider trading, etc.

Contact Information

You can visit the Texas office of court administration for more details at

Office of Court Administration
205 W. 14Th St, Suit 600
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 463 1625

To get information about other states felony charges you can visit the court administrator’s office at those states.