Talk:Felony

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[edit] Post-conviction: Jury duty and voting rights

"A civil sanction imposed on U.S. citizens convicted of a felony includes the loss of competence to serve on a grand or petit jury or to vote in elections even after release from prison. ... However the convicted person may regain his ability to serve as a juror and vote as part of a general restoration of civil rights following completion of sentence."

  • This text is ambiguous leaves it unclear as to whether voting rights are or are not restored after the sentence is served. If it varies it should say so. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.19.57.138 (talk • contribs).
    • I have tagged this article for Template:Contradict as the article doesn't carefully distinguish the circumstances in which a convicted Felon may have the right to serve on a jury or to vote in elections. More information and/or clarification is needed.--Ted 19:17, 11 April 2006 (UTC)
      • I'm not sure, but I believe one can apply to have their rights re-instated after the completion of the sentence, which may be what this is referring to. --71.225.229.151 19:29, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
        • Whether a person convicted of a felony will be disenfranchised differs by state. See http://www.righttovote.org/state.asp for a partial summary of the law in each state. I don't know how to edit the article correctly. 138.88.30.139 16:26, 30 April 2006 (UTC)Ace
    • I belive an incomplete encyclopedia is better than a contradicting one, i'll remove the offending paragraph until it is clear what needs to be written. If you know for sure if one can aply to have your civil rights restored post your sources here, i can do the editing if that's the problem. --Requiem the 18th(email) 06:54, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Suspicious source

The following section has been commented from the article: United States jurisdictions retaining the distinction between a felony and a misdemeanor sometimes divide felonies into classes, e.g. class A felony, class B felony, etc. In some cases, at least in North Carolina, a misdemeanor can turn into a felony: "If a misdemeanor offense as to which no specific punishment is prescribed be infamous, done in secrecy and malice, or with deceit and intent to defraud, the offender shall, except where the offense is a conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor, be guilty of a Class H felony." From http://www.jus.state.nc.us/ncja/stmar95.htm

The reason? the citation, http://www.jus.state.nc.us/ncja/stmar95.htm is very suspicious, not only the URL seems to be from an university webhosting, the root page http://www.jus.state.nc.us is not functional. How come? --Requiem the 18th(email)


[edit] Voting Rights

"While controversial, these disabilities are explicitly sanctioned by the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a Reconstruction-era amendment that deals with permissible state regulation of voting rights."

While laws restricting the voting rights of convicted felons is certainly controversial, the above staement is not correct. The Fifteenth Amendment does not explicity sanction voting disabilities applied to felons. The Fifteenth Amendment ONLY explicitly prohibits the United States or any State from enacting laws which deny or restrict the right to vote on the basis of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". The Nineteenth Amendment is similar in nature and prohibits laws which deny or restrict the right to vote on the basis of sex. The Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibits laws which deny or restrict the right to vote "by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax". The Twenty-sixth Amendment prohibits laws which deny or restrict the right to vote on the basis of age and sets the minimum voting age to 18 years.

Other than the restrictions explicitly set out in the above constitutional ammendments, the States can regulate voting in any way that they see fit.216.138.14.176 02:22, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Self-Payable record expunged?

"Theoretically, federal law allows persons convicted of felonies in a federal United States district court to apply to have their record expunged [...] However, the U.S. Congress has refused to fund the federal agency mandated with handling the applications of convicted felons to have their record expunged. This means that, in practice, federal felons cannot have their records expunged."

[edit] Felonies in Massachusetts

The statement about imprisonment for felonies and misdemeanors in Massachusetts misinterprets the section of the Massachusetts General Laws which it cites. While those convicted of misdemeanors cannot be placed in the state penitentiary, as the law section notes, they may be (and frequently are) required to serve sentences in county jails. As such, I have deleted the statement, as this is not a particularly notable fact about felonies in Massachusetts (whereas, if it were in fact true that misdemeanors never carry jail time, that would be notable.)

That sounds like there WOULD be a way to do so, like paying some "fee" to the relevant district court, to cover the costs of the processing. Is there? Archangel Michael 16:27, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Hi guys. This article looks very Angloamerican in content. I wonder if anyone here knows of good "world" sources on law. Perhaps something more theoretical could be applied? I'll have a look round the law library, but I'd be grateful for some ideas here. CSIvor 09:48, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
(The above user is a sock of blocked user user:HeadleyDown -- see Arbcom page for list of socks, blocks and bans. FT2 (Talk | email) 11:23, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
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