{"id":881,"date":"2021-05-06T09:02:45","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T13:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clearwatercriminallawyer.net\/?p=881"},"modified":"2026-01-31T13:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T18:35:15","slug":"what-is-a-felony-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/what-is-a-felony-in-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Felony in Florida?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many people are aware that, in Florida, crimes are classified as misdemeanors and felonies. Few people truly understand the ramifications of being charged with or convicted of felony offenses, however. Fortunately, Florida law explicitly explains what constitutes a felony and the potential punishments that may be imposed on people convicted of such offenses. If you are charged with a felony, it is critical to speak to a skillful Clearwater criminal defense lawyer to evaluate your options and potential defenses.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is a Felony in Florida?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>While all criminal charges deserve attention, felonies are more serious crimes than misdemeanors. In Florida, felonies are classified as life or capital felonies and felonies of the first, second, and third-degree.<\/p>\n<p>Capital felonies are the most serious offenses and are punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. First-degree murder is likely the crime that is most commonly charged as a capital felony. The second most serious offenses are life felonies, which are punishable by a fine of up to $15,000 and life imprisonment. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/what-is-a-felony-in-florida\/#more-881\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many people are aware that, in Florida, crimes are classified as misdemeanors and felonies. Few people truly understand the ramifications of being charged with or convicted of felony offenses, however. Fortunately, Florida law explicitly explains what constitutes a felony and the potential punishments that may be imposed on people convicted of such offenses. If you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-defense","category-felony-crimes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Felony for Your Defense in Florida<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Charged with felony charges? See how this ruling on what felony may help or hurt your defense in Pinellas County. See what to do next? Act fast soon.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/what-is-a-felony-in-florida\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Felony for Your Defense in Florida\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Charged with felony charges? See how this ruling on what felony may help or hurt your defense in Pinellas County. See what to do next? Act fast soon.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Felony for Your Defense in Florida","description":"Charged with felony charges? See how this ruling on what felony may help or hurt your defense in Pinellas County. See what to do next? Act fast soon.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/what-is-a-felony-in-florida\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Felony for Your Defense in Florida","twitter_description":"Charged with felony charges? See how this ruling on what felony may help or hurt your defense in Pinellas County. See what to do next? Act fast soon.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/what-is-a-felony-in-florida\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/what-is-a-felony-in-florida\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"headline":"What is a Felony in Florida?","datePublished":"2021-05-06T13:02:45+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T18:35:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/what-is-a-felony-in-florida\/"},"wordCount":538,"articleSection":["Criminal Defense","Felony Crimes"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/what-is-a-felony-in-florida\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/what-is-a-felony-in-florida\/","name":"Felony for Your Defense in Florida","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-05-06T13:02:45+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T18:35:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"description":"Charged with felony charges? 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