Felony

At Common Law. An offense which occasions a total forfeiture of either lands or goods, or both, to which capital or other punishment may be superadded, according to the degree of guilt.

4 Bl. Comm. 94, 95; 1 Russ. Crimes, 42; 1 Chit. Prac. 14; Co. Litt. 391; 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 37; 5 Wheat. (U. S.) 153, 159.

The common-law felonies were murder, manslaughter, rape, sodomy, robbery, larceny, arson, burglary, and perhaps mayhem. 1 Clark & Marshall, Crimes, 12; 2 Bish. New Crim. Law, § 1008. ——In American Law. The word has no clearly defined meaning, but includes offenses of a considerable gravity.

1 Park. Cr. R. (N. Y.) 39; 4 Ohio St. 542.

In the absence of a statute defining felonies,;t is generally held that no statutory crime is a felony unless it is so declared by the statute creating it.

66 Fed. 290; 7 Mass. 245.

In other jurisdictions it is enacted that all offenses punishable by death or by confinement in the penitentiary are felonies.

See 99 N. Y. 210; 35 Wis. 308; 10 Mich. 169; 89 Va. 570; 48 Me. 218.