Editing Felony (section)

===England and Wales===
====History====
[[William Blackstone|Sir William Blackstone]] wrote in the 18th century that felony "comprises every species of crime, which occasioned at common law the forfeiture of lands or goods".<ref name="Blackstone 4-7">Blackstone, W. (1765). ''[http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/blackstone/bla-407.htm Commentaries on the Laws of England] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120201033251/http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/blackstone/bla-407.htm |date=2012-02-01 }}'' (Book IV chapter 7) Oxford: [[Clarendon Press]].</ref> The word ''felony'' was feudal in origin, denoting the value of a man's entire property: "the consideration for which a man gives up his fief".<ref name="Blackstone">Blackstone.</ref>{{efn|The common-law felonies were: murder, manslaughter, mayhem, robbery, larceny, rape, sodomy, arson, and burglary.<ref>Legal Information Institute, [https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/criminal_law Criminal Law]; accessed 2021.08.28.</ref>}}  Blackstone refutes the misconception that felony simply means an offense punishable by death, by demonstrating that not every felony is capital, and not every [[Capital punishment|capital offense]] is a felony. However he concedes that "the idea of felony is indeed so generally connected with that of capital punishment, that we find it hard to separate them; and to this usage the interpretations of the law do now conform."<ref name="Blackstone 4-7"/>

The death penalty for felony could be avoided by pleading [[benefit of clergy]], which gradually evolved to exempt everybody (whether clergy or not) from that punishment for a first offense, except for [[high treason]] and offenses expressly excluded by statute. During the 19th century criminal law reform incrementally reduced the number of capital offences (see [[Capital punishment in the United Kingdom]]), and forfeiture for felony was abolished by the [[Forfeiture Act 1870]]. Consequently, the distinction between felony and misdemeanor became increasingly arbitrary. The surviving differences consisted of different rules of evidence and procedure, and the [[Law Commission (England and Wales)|Law Commission]] recommended that felonies be abolished altogether. This was done by the [[Criminal Law Act 1967]], which set the criminal practice for all crimes as that of misdemeanor and introduced a new system of classifying crimes as either "arrestable" and "non-arrestable" offenses (according to which a general power of arrest was available for crimes punishable by five years' imprisonment or more).

Arrestable offenses were abolished in 2006,<ref>[[Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005]].</ref> and today crimes are classified as [[Indictable offence|indictable]] or [[Summary offence|summary]] offenses, the only distinction being the mode of trial (by jury in the [[Crown Court]] or summarily in a [[magistrates' court (England and Wales)|magistrates' court]], respectively).

====Procedure====
The [[Trials for Felony Act 1836]] (6 & 7 Will. 4 c. 114) allowed persons indicted for felonies to be represented by counsel or attorney.

====Terminology====
A person being prosecuted for this was called a [[Prisoner#English law|prisoner]], though increasingly "accused" or "defendant" was preferred.<ref>[[Owen Hood Phillips|O. Hood Phillips]]. ''A First Book of English Law''. [[Sweet and Maxwell]]. Fourth Edition. 1960. Page 151.</ref>