Louisiana Crime and Punishment Chart: Misdemeanor and Felony Penalties

A Louisiana crime and punishment chart looks different from what people expect, because the state does not sort offenses into lettered classes. Every crime in Louisiana has its penalty written into the same statute that defines the offense, so the punishment depends on which statute applies, the defendant’s prior record, and whether any enhancement laws kick in. At the broadest level, misdemeanors usually top out at six months in parish jail and a $1,000 fine, while felonies range from a few years at hard labor up to life imprisonment or, in one narrow category, death.

How Louisiana Classifies Crimes

Louisiana Revised Statutes 14:2 draws a single line between the two categories. A felony is any crime that can be punished by death or imprisonment at hard labor. Everything else is a misdemeanor.¹ The phrase “hard labor” is what does the work. If a statute authorizes a hard labor sentence, the offense is a felony no matter how short the maximum term. A crime punishable by up to two years in parish jail without hard labor stays on the misdemeanor side of the line.

The distinction reaches well beyond the courtroom. A felony conviction affects voting rights, firearm possession, professional licensing, and any future sentencing if the person is charged again. Misdemeanors carry lighter penalties and fewer long-term restrictions, though repeat convictions can compound.

Misdemeanor Penalties

Misdemeanors are punished with fines, jail time in a parish facility, probation, community service, or a combination. There is no single statutory ceiling. Each offense statute sets its own maximum, and most common misdemeanors top out at six months in parish jail and $1,000 in fines.

Simple battery, meaning a battery committed without a weapon or serious injury, is punishable by up to six months in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both.² Theft of property worth less than $1,000 carries the same maximum.³ Within those ranges, judges frequently impose probation, community service, or counseling instead of jail, particularly for first-time offenders or cases without serious harm.

Felony Penalties

Felony sentences run from a few years to life. Because each statute prescribes its own range, the variation is enormous. Three common offenses show the spread:

Aggravated battery, meaning battery with a dangerous weapon or one causing serious injury, carries up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.⁴
Theft of property valued between $5,000 and $25,000 is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.³
Armed robbery carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 99 years at hard labor, with no possibility of parole, probation, or sentence suspension.⁵

Armed robbery is one of the harshest non-capital sentences on the books. The “without benefit of parole” language means the convicted person must serve every day of the imposed term. Judges cannot soften it with probation, and the parole board has no authority to release the person early. Similar mandatory language appears throughout Louisiana’s felony statutes for violent offenses, and it sharply limits judicial discretion at sentencing.

The Death Penalty and Life Sentences

First-degree murder is the only Louisiana crime that currently carries a potential death sentence. When a prosecutor seeks capital punishment, a jury chooses between death and life imprisonment at hard labor without parole. If the prosecutor does not seek a capital verdict, the sentence is automatically life without parole.⁶

The offense applies only in specific circumstances, not every intentional killing. The statute covers killings during the commission of certain violent felonies, killings of a police officer or firefighter acting in the line of duty, killings of more than one person, contract killings, and killings of a child under 12 or an adult 65 or older.⁶

The Louisiana Supreme Court reviews every death sentence for proportionality. As of early 2025, the state had not carried out an execution in over 15 years. Governor Jeff Landry announced in February 2025 that Louisiana intended to restart executions using a nitrogen gas protocol. Whether executions actually resume depends on ongoing legal challenges.

How Prior Convictions Multiply Sentences

Louisiana’s habitual offender law, RS 15:529.1, is one of the most aggressive repeat-offender statutes in the country, and it catches many defendants off guard. A person convicted of a second, third, or fourth felony faces a dramatically longer sentence than the underlying offense would normally carry.

Second felony: the sentence must fall between one-third of the maximum for the new offense and twice that maximum.⁷
Third felony: the sentence must fall between one-half of the maximum and twice the maximum for the new offense.⁷
Fourth or subsequent felony: the sentence must be at least the maximum for the new offense and no less than 20 years, up to life imprisonment.⁷

In concrete terms, if a crime normally carries a 10-year maximum, a second-felony offender faces between roughly 3 and 20 years, and a fourth-felony offender faces 20 years to life. When the priors involve crimes of violence or sex offenses, the enhancements are steeper still, and a third violent felony conviction triggers automatic life without parole. People sentenced as habitual offenders are also barred from earning good time credits, which removes another route to earlier release.⁸

How Much Time Is Actually Served

The imposed sentence and the time actually served often differ, because most prisoners can earn good time credits (formally called diminution of sentence) and become eligible for parole consideration.

Good time rates depend on the offense and record:

Non-violent offenders in state custody earn 13 days of credit for every 7 days served, so they effectively serve roughly 35 percent of the imposed sentence.⁸
First-time violent offenders earn 1 day of credit for every 3 days served, meaning they serve about 75 percent.⁸
Non-violent misdemeanants in parish jail earn day-for-day credit, effectively halving the sentence.⁸

Anyone sentenced under the habitual offender law or convicted of a sex offense earns no good time at all.⁸ An important shift took effect on August 1, 2024: offenses committed on or after that date fall under a new statute, RS 15:571.3.1, with different good time rates. Older offenses still use the prior rates.⁹

Parole is a separate pathway. A non-violent offender generally becomes eligible for parole consideration after serving 25 percent of the sentence. Violent and sex offenders wait far longer. A first violent felony (with no prior violent or sex offense) requires 65 percent, a second violent felony or a first or second sex offense requires 75 percent, and a third or subsequent violent felony or sex offense carries no parole eligibility at all.¹⁰ Eligibility does not guarantee release. The parole board conducts its own review. And many serious offenses are sentenced “without benefit of parole,” which overrides these eligibility rules entirely.

What Judges Weigh Within the Range

Within a statute’s range, judges consider the nature of the offense first: whether violence was involved, whether a weapon was used, and how badly the victim was harmed. Criminal history is the second major driver, both because of the habitual offender enhancements and because judges view a pattern of offending as evidence that lighter penalties have not worked.

Personal circumstances also matter. A defendant’s age, mental health, family obligations, and employment history all figure in. Young offenders or those with no record often receive sentences near the bottom of the range. Defendants struggling with addiction are sometimes directed to drug court, which emphasizes treatment over incarceration. Louisiana law authorizes each district court to establish a drug division for alcohol- and drug-related offenses, offering structured probation with treatment requirements as an alternative to prison.

Consequences That Outlast the Sentence

A conviction in Louisiana does not end when the jail or prison term does. Felony convictions carry lasting restrictions.

Firearms: federal law prohibits anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison from possessing a firearm or ammunition. Because virtually every Louisiana felony meets that threshold, a felony conviction means losing gun rights under both state and federal law.¹¹
Voting: Louisiana suspends voting rights during incarceration and while on parole or probation for a felony. Rights are restored automatically once supervision ends.
Employment and licensing: many professional licenses require a clean record or limit eligibility for applicants with certain convictions, and background checks often screen out felonies for jobs that don’t require a license at all.

Louisiana’s guilty plea rules now require courts to warn defendants about several of these consequences, along with possible deportation for non-citizens and future habitual offender sentencing, before accepting a plea.¹² For many people, the collateral consequences prove more disruptive than the sentence itself.

Clearing a Record Later

Louisiana allows some convictions to be expunged, which seals the record from most public background checks. Eligibility depends on the offense and how much time has passed.

For felonies, a person can seek expungement if 10 years have passed since completion of the sentence, probation, or parole, and the person has no other convictions or pending charges during that period. The district attorney must certify a clean record before the motion proceeds. Felonies classified as crimes of violence are generally excluded, as are sex offenses and most domestic abuse convictions. Some drug convictions have a broader path: possession offenses and lower-level drug violations punishable by five years or less may qualify even when other felonies in the same penalty range would not.¹³ Filing fees and court costs apply, and the process typically requires a hearing. Expungement does not erase a conviction from every database, but it removes it from the records most employers and landlords access.

What’s Changing

Louisiana historically had one of the highest incarceration rates in the country, which prompted the 2017 Justice Reinvestment Initiative. The package shortened sentence ranges for some non-violent offenses, expanded parole eligibility, and invested savings into reentry programs, victim services, and recidivism reduction.¹⁴¹⁵

The direction has since shifted. Beginning in 2024, the legislature passed laws rolling back parts of the 2017 reforms, including tighter good time credit eligibility for offenses committed on or after August 1, 2024.⁹ Governor Landry has also moved to restart executions after the 15-year pause. Because the rules that apply to a particular case depend heavily on when the offense was committed, anyone trying to pin down a sentence should check both the statute for the offense and the date the offense occurred.

1
Justia. Louisiana Code Title 14 RS 14-2 – Definitions
2
Justia. Louisiana Code Title 14 RS 14-35 – Simple Battery
3
Justia. Louisiana Code Title 14 RS 14-67 – Theft
4
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 14-34 – Aggravated Battery
5
Justia. Louisiana Code Title 14 RS 14-64 – Armed Robbery
6
Justia. Louisiana Code Title 14 RS 14-30 – First Degree Murder
7
Justia. Louisiana Code Title 15 RS 15-529.1 – Sentences for Second and Subsequent Offenses
8
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 15-571.3 – Diminution of Sentence for Good Behavior
9
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 15-571.3.1 – Eligibility and Applicability of Diminution of Sentence for Crimes Committed on or After August 1, 2024
10
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 15-574.4 – Parole Eligibility
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
12
FindLaw. Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 556.1
13
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 978
14
State of Louisiana. Louisiana Justice Reinvestment Task Force Report and Recommendations
15
Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Justice Reform