Misprision of felony

Criminal law
Elements
Actus reus Mens rea Causation Concurrence
Scope of criminal liability
Accessory Accomplice Complicity Corporate Principal Vicarious
Severity of offense
Felony (or Indictable offense) Infraction (also called violation) Misdemeanor (or Summary offense)
Inchoate offenses
Attempt Conspiracy Incitement Solicitation
Offense against the person
Assassination Assault Battery Child abuse Criminal negligence Defamation Domestic violence False imprisonment Frameup Harassment Home invasion Homicide Human trafficking Intimidation Kidnapping Menacing Manslaughter (corporate) Mayhem Murder felony Negligent homicide Robbery Stalking Torture
Sexual offenses
Adultery Bigamy Child sexual abuse Cybersex trafficking Fornication Homosexuality Incest Indecent exposure Masturbation Obscenity Prostitution Rape Sex trafficking Sexual assault Sexual slavery Voyeurism
Crimes against property
Arson Arms trafficking Blackmail Bribery Burglary Embezzlement Extortion False pretenses Forgery Fraud Gambling Intellectual property violation Larceny Looting Payola Pickpocketing Possessing stolen property Robbery Smuggling Tax evasion Theft Trespass to land Vandalism, Mischief
Crimes against justice
Compounding Malfeasance in office Miscarriage of justice Misprision Obstruction Perjury Perverting the course of justice
Crimes against the public
Apostasy Begging Censorship violation Dueling Genocide Hostage-taking Illegal consumption (such as prohibition of drugs, alcohol, and smoking) Miscegenation Piracy Regicide Terrorism Usurpation War crimes
Crimes against animals
Cruelty to animals Poaching Wildlife smuggling Bestiality
Crimes against the state
Lèse-majesté Treason Espionage Secession Sedition Subversion
Defenses to liability
Actual innocence Automatism Consent Defense of property Diminished responsibility Duress Entrapment Ignorantia juris non excusat Infancy Insanity Justification Mistake (of law) Necessity Provocation Self-defense
Other common-law areas
Contracts Defenses Evidence Property Torts Wills, trusts and estates
Portals
Law
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Misprision of felony is a form of misprision, and an offence under the common law of England that is no longer active in many common law countries. Where it was or is active, it is classified as a misdemeanor.^[1] It consists of failing to report knowledge of a felony to the appropriate authorities. Exceptions were made for close family members of the felon^[2] and where the disclosure would tend to incriminate the reporter himself.^[3]

With the development of the modern law, this crime has been discarded in many jurisdictions, and is generally only applied against persons placed in a special position of authority or responsibility. In this case, the offence of misfeasance in public office or malfeasance in public office may be considered instead. For example, corrections officers who stand idly by while drug trafficking occurs within the prison may be prosecuted for this crime.^{[citation needed]}

It has been abolished in:

• England, Wales and Scotland, as part of the criminal law reforms that abolished the distinction between misdemeanor and felony—Criminal Law Act 1967 (c. 58), section 1
• Northern Ireland, with the Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967—(c. 18) (N.I.), section 1
• Ireland, with the Criminal Law Act 1997—(No. 14), section 3
• New South Wales, Australia, with the Crimes Act 1900—section 341^[4]

In some cases, misprision has been replaced by a more tightly defined statutory offence. For example, in England and Wales, the 1967 Act states that a person who has information which might lead to the prosecution of an arrestable offence—and who agrees to accept consideration in exchange for not disclosing it—is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment.^[5]

United States federal law

Misprision of felony remains an offense under United States federal law having been enacted in 1790 and codified in 1909 under 18 U.S.C. § 4:

Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

U.S. courts have held that misprision of felony requires active concealment of a known felony rather than simple failure to report it.^[6]

Under the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, it is illegal for anyone who is aware of being a target of a federal investigation to intentionally erase browser history on a computer. Khairullozhan Matanov was prosecuted for erasing computer records about his friends, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev; he pleaded guilty to a lesser included offense in 2015.^[7][8]

The federal misprision of felony statute is usually used only in prosecutions against defendants who have a special duty to report a crime, such as a government official.^[9]

See also

• Compounding a felony
• Felony
• Misprision
• Misprision of treason
• Pope v. State

References

Other sources

• Curenton, The Past, Present, and Future of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 4: An Exploration of the Federal Misprision of Felony Statute, (2003) Vol. 55 Alabama Law Review, 183.
• U.S. Code Online via GPO Access (wais.access.gpo.gov) United States Code Title 18, Part I, Chapter I, Section 4

Further reading

• For a discussion of the appellant's defence and the decision in Sykes above, see P.R.Glazebrook, Misprision of Felony - Shadow or Phantom, The American Journal of Legal History, Volume 8, No.3 (July 1964) pp. 189 – 208, Temple University JSTOR
• For a general discussion of this offence from an American viewpoint, see William Lawrence Clark, A Treatise on the Law of Crimes, Hein, 1996, para. 439 pp. 679 – 680 [1]