MCLR+ Resources: Felony

Past (Anglo-American focus)

• J.G. Bellamy, Criminal Trial in Later Medieval England: Felony Before the Courts From Edward I to the Sixteenth Century (1998)
• Sara Butler, Pain, Penance and Protest: Peine Forte et Dure in Medieval England (2022)
• Ian Forrest, Trustworthy Men: How Inequality and Faith Made the Medieval Church (2012)
• Timon de Groot, Citizens into Dishonored Felons: Felony Disenfranchisement, Honor, and Rehabilitation in Germany, 1806-1933 (2023) (open access)
• Jennifer Jahner, Literature and Law in the Era of Magna Carta (2019)
• Elizabeth Papp Kamali, Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England (2019)
• Emma Lipton, Cultures of Witnessing: Law and the York Plays (2022)
• Frederick Pollock & Frederic William Maitland, The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, 2 vols. (1895) (reprint of 2d ed. 1898) (open access)
• Jamie Taylor, Fictions of Witnessing: Witnessing, Literature, and Community in the Late Middle Ages (2013)
• Elise Wang, The Making of Felony Procedure in Middle English Literature (2024)
  
• Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Knight’s Tale,” I ll. 1995-2002, in The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400)

Ther saugh I first the derke ymaginyng
Of Felonye, and al the compassying;
The crueel Ire, reed as any gleede;
The pykepurs, and eek the pale Drede;
The smylere with the knyf under the cloke;
The shepne brennynge with the blake smoke;
The tresoun of the mordrynge in the bedde;
The open werre, with woundes al bibledde.

There saw I first the dark imagining
Of Felony, and all the company;
The cruel Ire, red as any coal;
The pick-pocket, and also the pale Dread;
The smiler with the knife under the cloak;
The sheepbarn burning with the black smoke;
The treason of the murdering in the bed;
The open war, with wounds all bled.

Present (US focus)

• Guyora Binder, Felony Murder (2012)
• Alice Ristroph, Farewell to the Felonry, 53 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 563 (2018) (open access)
• Trump et al.
  • N.Y. Times Editorial Board, Donald Trump, Felon, N.Y. Times, May 30, 2024
  • Alene Bouranova, Trump Is a Convicted Felon. Does That Actually Mean Anything?, BU Today, June 3, 2024
  • Mattathias Schwartz, A Mark of Shame for 900 Years. Until Now?, N.Y. Times, July 6, 2024 (“When Donald J. Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies in May, by a jury in a Manhattan courtroom, the nation was confronted with a historical novelty: a felon who once held the highest office in the land.”)
  • Carroll Bogert, The Problem With Labeling Trump a “Felon”, The Marshall Project, July 25, 2024 (“By calling Trump a ‘felon,’ we risk rehabilitating a word that has fallen out of favor for good reason. Trump is a person convicted of felonies. So are millions of other Americans. How we describe him affects them, too.”)
• “Felony”
  • Morisette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246 (1952) (quoting Pollock & Maitland, supra) (open access)
  • Staples v. United States, 511 U.S. 600, 618 (1994) (ditto) (open access)
• Felon disenfranchisement
  • Richardson v. Ramirez, 418 U.S. 24 (1974) (rejecting equal protection challenge) (open access)
• International overwiew
  • Nicole D. Porter et al., Out of Step: U.S. Policy on Voting Rights in Global Perspective, The Sentencing Project, June 27, 2024 (open access)

MCLR+ Events & Publications

• From Treason to Trump: Felony’s Medieval Origins and Modern Resilience (A Book Forum)
  • Panel Discussion (Jan 17, 2025) (live streamed on YouTube.com/@ModCrimLRev)
  • MCLR+ Forum (forthcoming spring/summer 2025)

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* All materials open access if available. Online materials last accessed October 19, 2024, unless otherwise indicated.