Classifying crimes: felonies, misdemeanors and minor offenses

In week two Ms. Liu brings in a stack of real charging documents from Port Ardent, with the names blacked out, and asks the students to sort them into piles. Marco sorts them by how serious they look: a stolen bicycle in one pile, a stabbing in another. Priya sorts them by type: violence, property, drugs. Ms. Liu says both are reasonable but neither is how the system sorts them. The legal classification of an offense decides which court hears it, how the accused can be arrested and released, how long the state has to begin a prosecution, what the maximum sentence is and what kind of record follows the person afterward. An officer who does not know whether an offense is a felony or a misdemeanor, and of what degree, cannot know whether he or she may arrest without a warrant or must issue a citation. This lesson is about that sorting system.

Felonies and misdemeanors

American law divides crimes into felonies and misdemeanors. The traditional dividing line, used in federal law and most states, is the possible punishment: a felony is punishable by death or imprisonment for more than one year, usually in a state prison, while a misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year, usually in a local jail. The Model Penal Code adds lesser categories: petty misdemeanors and violations, which carry only a fine and are not crimes at all in the Code's sense. Ohio grades its offenses more finely. Felonies run from the first degree, the most serious, to the fifth degree; misdemeanors run from the first degree to the fourth, followed by minor misdemeanors, which carry only a fine. Aggravated murder and murder sit above all degrees with their own penalties.

Each Ohio degree has its own penalty range, set out in Revised Code sections 2929.14 for felonies and 2929.24 for misdemeanors. A first-degree misdemeanor carries up to 180 days in jail and a 1,000 dollar fine, falling to 30 days and 250 dollars for the fourth degree, and a minor misdemeanor carries a fine of up to 150 dollars and no jail. Felony prison terms range from 6 to 12 months for the fifth degree up to 3 to 11 years for the first degree, and since 2019 the Reagan Tokes Law makes most first- and second-degree felony sentences indefinite, with a minimum and a maximum term. The statute defining the crime says what degree it is, and many statutes raise the degree when aggravating facts are present, such as the value of property stolen or the victim being a police officer.

The courts that hear criminal cases

In Ohio, misdemeanors are tried in municipal or county courts, or in some places a mayor's court for minor matters, and the accused can usually ask for a jury if jail is possible. Felony cases begin in municipal or county court with an initial appearance and a preliminary hearing, at which a judge decides whether there is probable cause; if so, the case is bound over to the court of common pleas and presented to a grand jury, which decides whether to return an indictment. The Ohio Constitution requires an indictment for any felony unless the accused waives it. The Sixth Amendment guarantees a jury trial for any offense punishable by more than six months in jail. Federal crimes are tried in the United States District Court, which in Toledo sits as part of the Northern District of Ohio.

Statutes of limitations: how long the state has to prosecute

A statute of limitations sets the time within which a prosecution must begin. Ohio's general rule, in Revised Code section 2901.13, is six years for a felony, two years for a misdemeanor and six months for a minor misdemeanor. There is no limit for aggravated murder or murder, and the limit for rape and several other serious offenses is twenty-five years. The period starts when the offense is committed and can be paused, or tolled, while the accused is out of state or hiding, and for some offenses involving fraud or a breach of duty it starts only when the offense is discovered. A prosecution begins when an indictment, information or complaint is filed, or when a warrant or summons is issued. Federal crimes generally have a five-year limit.

The code below checks a list of cases from the Port Ardent file room against the time limits. Priya points out that it is the same kind of calculation her bank used to decide whether a fraud claim was still within its window, and Ms. Liu says that prosecutors' offices run exactly this kind of check when files are transferred.

# Is a prosecution still in time? R.C. 2901.13 general limits (simplified; no tolling).
from datetime import date
def add_months(d, months):
    y, m = divmod(d.month - 1 + months, 12)
    return date(d.year + y, m + 1, min(d.day, 28))
limits = {"felony": 72, "misdemeanor": 24, "minor misdemeanor": 6, "murder": None}
files = [("theft, M1", "misdemeanor", date(2024, 1, 10)), ("assault, M1", "misdemeanor", date(2025, 11, 2)),
         ("disorderly conduct, MM", "minor misdemeanor", date(2025, 3, 30)),
         ("burglary, F2", "felony", date(2019, 5, 4)), ("murder", "murder", date(1998, 7, 1))]
today = date(2026, 2, 16)
for charge, kind, when in files:
    months = limits[kind]
    if months is None:
        status = "no limit"
    else:
        deadline = add_months(when, months)
        status = f"file by {deadline}" if today <= deadline else f"EXPIRED on {deadline}"
    print(f"{charge:24s} {when}  {kind:17s} {status}")

theft, M1                2024-01-10  misdemeanor       EXPIRED on 2026-01-10
assault, M1              2025-11-02  misdemeanor       file by 2027-11-02
disorderly conduct, MM   2025-03-30  minor misdemeanor EXPIRED on 2025-09-28
burglary, F2             2019-05-04  felony            EXPIRED on 2025-05-04
murder                   1998-07-01  murder            no limit

The output shows why classification is the first thing a file reviewer checks. The January 2024 theft charge expired in January 2026, two years after the offense, and cannot be filed. The minor misdemeanor expired after six months. The burglary is still in time because felonies have six years, and murder has no limit. Delay costs cases, and the cost falls on victims.

Minor misdemeanors, traffic offenses and ordinances

Most of what officers enforce every day are minor offenses: traffic violations, minor misdemeanors such as a first disorderly conduct offense or possession of a small amount of a controlled substance in some forms, and city ordinances. In Ohio, most traffic offenses are minor misdemeanors or misdemeanors under Title 45, prosecuted on the uniform traffic ticket. Revised Code section 2935.26 requires an officer to issue a citation rather than arrest for a minor misdemeanor unless the person needs medical care, cannot or will not provide satisfactory identification, refuses to sign the citation or has previously failed to appear on a citation. Many of these offenses are strict liability, a category explained in lesson 4, meaning the state does not have to prove a culpable mental state.

These offenses are lighter, but they are not trivial. They are how the law regulates the ordinary risks of daily life, such as speeding, and they are often the first contact a person has with police. They also lead to more serious matters. A routine traffic stop can reveal a suspended driver, an impaired driver or a person wanted on a warrant. Officers should know the most common provisions well enough to explain them to the people they stop, because an explanation is part of procedural justice, the idea from LES-101 that people accept outcomes more readily when they feel the process was fair.

Why classification matters to an officer

Classification affects police powers directly. Officers may arrest without a warrant when they have probable cause to believe a person has committed a felony, even if it happened out of their sight. For misdemeanors, the traditional rule allows a warrantless arrest only for an offense committed in the officer's presence, though Ohio and many states make exceptions, for example for domestic violence and for theft. For minor misdemeanors, Ohio generally requires a citation. Classification affects bail, the right to appointed counsel, the court and the collateral consequences of conviction: a felony conviction can bar a person from possessing firearms, serving on a jury or holding some licenses. Ohio expanded record sealing and expungement in 2023, so many people with older lower-level convictions can now apply to have their records sealed after waiting periods.

Classification also shapes how a case is investigated. The more serious the offense, the more resources it receives and the more carefully every step is documented, because it is more likely to be contested at trial. A minor theft may be handled entirely by the patrol officer who took the call; a robbery is handed to investigators; a homicide becomes a major case with a team, a file coordinator and prosecutor involvement from the start. Knowing the class of offense helps officers set priorities and know when to call for help.