Also known as: infamous crimes · crime of infamy
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An offense punishable by imprisonment in a penitentiary or at hard labor. Such offenses trigger the Fifth Amendment requirement of indictment by a grand jury before a person may be held to answer.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Ian Iverson faces federal charges for embezzling funds from his employer. The maximum penalty includes a term in a federal penitentiary. Prosecutors therefore present the case to a grand jury, which returns an indictment before Ian may be held to answer.
A journalist receives a grand jury subpoena seeking sources for a story about public corruption. The underlying offenses under investigation carry penitentiary sentences. The journalist must appear because the crimes qualify as infamous and therefore require grand jury proceedings.
Imran Iyer is convicted of a weapons offense. The judge seeks to impose an enhanced sentence based on a fact found by the court alone. Because the enhancement would convert the crime into one punishable by penitentiary time, the fact must be charged in the grand jury indictment.
Israel Irving is convicted of a state offense carrying a penitentiary sentence. State officials bar him from voting. The conviction counts as an infamous crime, so the disqualification is applied without violating federal constitutional limits on such restrictions.
Isaiah Ishikawa is charged with murder. The statute authorizes the death penalty and alternatively imprisonment in the state penitentiary. The state proceeds by grand jury indictment because the offense is infamous under the Fifth Amendment.
India Inoue challenges a state law that removes voting rights after conviction for certain offenses. The law applies only to convictions carrying penitentiary sentences. Those offenses qualify as infamous crimes, so the restriction is upheld under the state constitution.
A crime is infamous when it is punishable by imprisonment in a penitentiary or at hard labor, even if a lesser sentence is ultimately imposed.
Supporting sources
No. The Fifth Amendment grand jury clause applies only to federal prosecutions for infamous crimes.
Supporting sources
Common-law definitions that focused on fraud or dishonesty are superseded for constitutional purposes by the modern test based on the potential for penitentiary imprisonment.
Supporting sources
…to the right of suffrage, and prohibits denying to any person the suffrage to which he is entitled except upon conviction of an infamous crime. Art. I, § 5; Art. IV, § 1. It requires an enumeration of qualified voters within every term of ten years after 1871 and an apportionment of representatives and senators among the several…