Unless otherwise provided, any criminal offense which at any given time may be punished by imprisonment for a term of more than one year, or by a fine of more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), is declared to be a felony; any criminal offense which may be punishable by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or both, is declared to be a misdemeanor; any criminal offense which may be punishable by imprisonment for a term not exceeding six (6) months or by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500), or both, is declared to be a petty misdemeanor; and any offense which may be punished by only a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500) is declared to be a violation.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-1-2
Felony, misdemeanor — Petty misdemeanor, and violation distinguished
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case United States v. Restrepo-Aguilar (1996)
Most recently applied in Jones v. State (July 2011)
G.L. 1938, ch. 625, § 74; P.L. 1941, ch. 983, § 1; P.L. 1956, ch. 3721, § 3; G.L. 1956, § 11-1-2; P.L. 1971, ch. 115, § 1; P.L. 1976, ch. 173, § 1; P.L. 1979, ch. 222, § 1; P.L.…
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Rhode Island General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Rhode Island statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.