Felony

Generic term employed to distinguish certain high crimes from minoroffenses known as misdemeanors; crimes declared to be such by statute or to be"true crimes" by the common law. Statutes often define felony as an offensepunishable by imprisonment for more than one year or by death or imprisonmentgenerally. The original common law felonies were felonious homicide, mayhem,arson, rape, robbery, burglary, larceny, prison breach (escape) and rescue of afelon.