Article
6
§6.01. Degrees of Felonies
(1) There are
three degrees of felonies: (a) first degree, (b) second degree, and (c) third
degree. Big deal. If we don’t say otherwise, a felony is third
degree.
(2) Anything
called a felony that’s defined in other statutes is of the third degree unless
we say otherwise.
§6.06. Sentence
of Imprisonment for Felony; Ordinary Terms
(1) If you commit
a first degree felony, the punishment is a minimum of one to ten years to a
maximum of life.
(2) If you commit
a second degree felony, the punishment is a minimum of one to three years to a
maximum of ten years.
(3) If you commit
a third degree felony, the punishment is a minimum of one to two years with a
maximum of five years.
Alternative §6.06. Sentence of
Imprisonment for Felony; Ordinary Terms
(1) Here, the
minimum is one to 10 but the max is 20 to life.
§6.08. Sentence of Imprisonment for
Misdemeanors and Petty Misdemeanors; Ordinary Terms
You can’t get locked up for more than a year for a
misdemeanor or more than 30 days for a petty misdemeanor. That’s odd, because based on §1.04, this
takes down a notch crimes that are not explicitly referred to as misdemeanors
but have a maximum sentence of less than a year.
For example, if loitering is currently not labeled by
any particular class of crimes and the maximum penalty is six months in jail,
and then I adopt the MPC, loitering automagically
becomes a petty misdemeanor and gets knocked down to a maximum sentence
of only 30 measly days. I guess I could
just change my local statute to call it a misdemeanor, though.