What Is a Class 6 Felony? Understanding Felony Charges

The FBI estimated 1,221,345 violent crimes nationwide in 2024, down 4.5 percent from 2023. The violent crime rate fell 5.4 percent over the same stretch and now sits at its lowest point in decades.

There are different types of felony offenses punishable under criminal law. Many states classify felonies under different categories depending on the seriousness of the crime and its punishment. One classification is a Class 6 felony.

What is a class 6 felony? A Class 6 felony is the lowest-rung felony category in states that run a numbered class system. This type of felony, often called the "least severe” category, is not a minor offense. A Class 6 felony’s still a felony conviction. This class of felony carries with it a real chance of prison time, a lasting criminal record and loss of firearm rights under federal law. Its consequences can affect an individual for years, even after the sentence ends.

Familiarity with the implications of receiving this category of felony charge allows an individual to set up defenses to preserve their rights and interests.

How felony classification systems work

Felonies are the most serious type of criminal offense a person can face and carry more penalties than misdemeanors. Sumter felony lawyer Garryl L. Deas’ law firm website says that felonies are a wide group of criminal acts ranging from violent crimes such as assault and battery to non-violent crimes such as theft or fraud.

Most states organize felony offenses into some kind of tiered arrangement. Some jurisdictions use letters like Class A through E or F. Others go with numbers like Class 1 through 6 and some use labels based on degrees instead. Even with different methods of classification, these groupings mostly operate on the same logic. The more severe a felony is, the higher its class or category. The classification of a felony is what influences whether a sentence is grave or not.

In the states that use a Class 1 through 6 numbering setup, Class 1 felonies are the most serious crimes. Murder is in that group, and it can bring the harshest penalties, including life imprisonment. Class 6 is the other end of the scale. It still lands over the line that separates felonies from misdemeanors, but the sentencing windows are shorter. The actual conduct involved is usually considered less severe than what shows up in the upper classes, or so the system treats it.

Not every state uses this same structure. Virginia and Colorado both use Class 1 through 6 frameworks but with different offense examples and sentencing ranges attached to each tier. New York uses Class A through E instead. States that classify felonies by category, offense type and specific circumstances rather than a numbered scale don't use “Class 6” terminology at all. These areas distinguish more serious felonies from less serious ones through sentence length and aggravating factors.

What crimes typically fall into the Class 6 category

The offenses that land in Class 6 vary by state, but these crimes usually exhibit a pattern. They tend to be crimes more serious than misdemeanors but less serious than the violent or big-scale offenses showing up in the higher felony classes.

In Virginia, credit card fraud crosses into Class 6 felony territory once the value hits $1,000 in a six-month window. Below that threshold, it remains a Class 1 misdemeanor. Repeat incidents may turn a misdemeanor to a felony. Multiple domestic violence convictions, strangulation, and various violations of court orders can become a felony. Some drug possession offenses can fit here too and theft that stays under the threshold for the higher felony classes.

One concept that comes up constantly in Class 6 felony law is the wobbler. In Arizona, the court can designate a Class 6 felony as a Class 1 misdemeanor at sentencing if the defendant has no prior felony convictions and the offense did not involve a deadly weapon. Arizona courts can also leave it undesignated during probation. The charge will be designated as a Class 1 misdemeanor on successful completion.

The defendant's criminal history and the judge's discretion help determine how a Class 6 charge is handled. If someone is a first-time offender and has no prior record, they might have a Class 6 charge worked out as a misdemeanor. A repeat offender, or someone whose conduct caused real harm, may face the full felony designation and everything that comes with it.

Sentencing ranges for Class 6 felonies

The Class 6 label gets used differently across jurisdictions. No single sentencing range applies universally. What's consistent is that Class 6 sentences are the shortest available in states using this classification.

Virginia keeps the felony label either way. The jury or the judge can cap the punishment at 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine, but the conviction still counts as a felony.

In other states, the presumptive range sits at one year to 18 months in state prison. These sentences also require a one-year parole period, but they may be elevated when the offense is tagged as extraordinary risk.

Indiana sets a level 6 felony that ranges from six months to two and a half years in county jail rather than state prison. There is also a fine cap that can reach $10,000.

Prior record, aggravating facts, the victim’s age or role and whether weapons were involved all affect where the final sentence lands within that range. In some places, mandatory minimums can take away judicial discretion for particular offenses, even when they’re sitting inside the Class 6 label.

The sentence after the sentence

The prison term has a fixed endpoint but the collateral consequences don’t. The aftermath of a Class 6 felony is almost the same as with any serious offense. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), federal law blocks anyone who’s been convicted of a crime that carries a possible sentence longer than one year from owning a firearm or ammunition. A Class 6 felony conviction hits that requirement, and then it sets off a lifetime ban on federal firearm possession. The law doesn't distinguish between Class 1 and Class 6 for this purpose. Someone convicted of the lowest felony class loses the exact same firearm rights as someone convicted of the highest.

Class 6 felonies in different jurisdictions affect voting rights. The details change from state to state. Some restore rights right after sentence completion, and others make people wait, file petitions or even chase a pardon. The felony label also tends to show up in background checks used by employers, landlords, licensing boards and various certifying agencies, and that’s controlled by a patchwork of federal and state law, with the Fair Credit Reporting Act in the mix. Still, the conviction itself can’t be hidden unless someone successfully does expungement or sealing or gets a pardon. Each option comes with different eligibility rules.

Record sealing, expungement, and restoring rights

Whether a Class 6 felony conviction can be expunged, sealed or dismissed varies by state. Some states permit expungement after a qualifying waiting period with a clean record throughout. Others permit only sealing, making the record inaccessible to most civil background check users but not to law enforcement or certain licensing agencies. A small number of states do not allow felony expungement at all.

Virginia's sealing statutes took effect last July 1, 2026. Felony sealing is discretionary, with a 10-year wait from final disposition. But this is only if the applicant has no Class 1 or Class 2 felony convictions and no Class 3 or Class 4 convictions within twenty years, plus no felony convictions whatsoever within ten years.

Some jurisdictions have their separate process for converting a Level 6 felony. For instance, Indiana’s conversion of a Level 6 to a Class A misdemeanor is done under IC 35-38-1-1.5 and requires a guilty plea to a qualifying offense. The court, the prosecuting attorney and the involved individual must all agree to the conditions. Indiana allows only one expungement petition in a person's lifetime. If the conviction remains a Level 6, the wait is eight years from conviction, but if it was converted to a Class A misdemeanor, then the wait is five years. The availability and process for relief are entirely state-specific, which is precisely why the jurisdiction where a charge is filed matters as much as the charge itself.

A Class 6 felony is the entry point into felony territory, not some intermediate category between misdemeanors and serious crime. Once a conviction is entered, the firearm prohibition, the background check disclosure and the effect on licensing and employment apply with the same force they would for a far higher-class felony.

The wobbler structure many states use affects whether the charge can be resolved as a misdemeanor rather than a felony. When available, that outcome avoids the full weight of the felony classification entirely. The defense analysis of a class 6 felony case must begin by checking whether it is available in a specific jurisdiction and what arguments support it in that case.