What is Conviction (law)?

Information about Conviction (law)

For other senses of this word, see conviction (disambiguation).
“convicted” redirects here. For the 1950 film, see Convicted (film).
Criminal procedure
Criminal trials and convictions
Rights of the accused
Right to a fair trial  · Speedy trial
Jury trial  · Presumption of innocence
Exclusionary rule (U.S.)
Self-incrimination  · Double jeopardy
Verdict
Acquittal  · Conviction
Not proven (Scot.)  · Directed verdict
Sentencing
Mandatory  · Suspended  · Custodial
Dangerous offender (Can.)
Capital punishment  · Execution warrant
Cruel and unusual punishment
Post-conviction events
Parole  · Probation
Tariff (UK)  · Life licence (UK)
Miscarriage of justice
Exoneration  · Pardon
Related areas of law
Criminal law  · Evidence
Civil procedure
Portals:  ·


In law, a conviction is the verdict that results when a court of law finds a defendant guilty of a crime.

The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (i.e. "not guilty"). (In Scotland and in the Netherlands there is also a third verdict of "not proven", which counts as an acquittal.)

For a host of reasons, the criminal justice system is not perfect and sometimes guilty defendants are acquitted while innocent people are convicted. Appeal mechanisms mitigate this problem to some extent. An error that results in the conviction of an innocent person is a miscarriage of justice.

After a defendant is convicted, the court determines the appropriate sentence as a punishment. Further, the conviction may lead to results beyond the terms of the sentence itself, such as loss of federal education loans in the case of a drug felony. Such ramifications are known as the collateral consequences of criminal charges.
Conviction may refer to:
  • Conviction (law), a finding that a defendant is guilty of committing a crime
  • Conviction (album), an album released in August 2007 by the band Aiden.

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Convicted is a 1950 film noir film directed by Henry Levin and starring Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford.

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Criminal procedure refers to the legal process for adjudicating claims that someone has violated criminal law.

Differences between civil law and common law systems


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The rights of the accused is a class of rights that apply to a person in the time period between when they are formally accused of a crime and when they are either convicted or acquitted.
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The Right to a fair trial is an essential right in all countries respecting the rule of law. It is explicitly proclaimed in Article Ten of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution, and Article Six of the European Convention of Human
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Speedy trial refers to one of the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution to defendants in criminal proceedings. The right to a speedy trial, guaranteed by the 6th Amendment, is intended to ensure that defendants are not subjected to unreasonably lengthy
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jury trial to be a fundamental civil liberty or civil right; however most other nations do not recognize it as a fundamental civil liberty, civil right, or human right, because jury trials evolved within common law systems rather than civil law systems.
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Presumption of innocence is a legal right that the accused in criminal trials has in many modern nations. It states that no person shall be considered guilty until finally convicted by a court.
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In United States constitutional law, the exclusionary rule is a legal principle holding that evidence collected or analyzed in violation of the U.S. Constitution is inadmissible for a criminal prosecution in a court of law (that is, it cannot be used in a criminal trial).
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Self-incrimination is the act of accusing oneself of a crime for which a person can then be prosecuted. Self-incrimination can occur either directly or indirectly: directly, by means of interrogation where information of a self-incriminatory nature is disclosed; indirectly, when
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worldwide view of the subject.
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Double jeopardy is a procedural defense (and, in many countries such as the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan and India, a constitutional right) which
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verdict is the formal finding of fact made by a jury on matters or questions submitted to the jury by a judge. (see Black's Law Dictionary, p. 1398 (5th ed. 1979) The term, from the Latin veredictum, literally means "to say the truth" and is derived from Middle English
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acquittal is a verdict of not guilty, or some similar end of the proceeding that terminates it with prejudice without a verdict of guilty being entered against the accused. The opposite result is a conviction.
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conviction is the verdict that results when a court of law finds a defendant guilty of a crime.

The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (i.e. "not guilty"). (In Scotland and in the Netherlands there is also a third verdict of "not proven", which counts as an acquittal.
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Not proven is a verdict available to a court in Scotland.

Under Scots law, a criminal trial may end in one of three verdicts: one of conviction ('proven') and two of acquittal ('not proven' and 'not guilty').
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In law, a directed verdict is an order from the judge presiding over a jury trial that one side or the other wins. Typically, the judge orders a directed verdict after finding that no reasonable jury could reach a decision to the contrary.
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For other uses, see Sentence.


In law, a sentence forms the final act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function.
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A mandatory sentence is a court decision setting where judicial discretion is limited by law. Typically, people convicted of certain crimes must be punished with at least a minimum number of years in prison. Mandatory sentencing laws vary from country to country.
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A suspended sentence is a legal construct. Unless a minimum punishment is prescribed by law, the court has the power to suspend the passing of sentence (generally for a period of three years) and place the offender on probation.
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A custodial sentence is a judicial sentence, imposing a punishment (and hence the resulting punishment itself) consisting of mandatory custody of the convict, either in prison (incarceration) or in some other closed therapeutic and/or (re)educational institution, such as a
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dangerous offender may be subjected to an indeterminate prison sentence, whether or not the crime carries a life sentence. The purpose of the legislation is to detain offenders who are deemed too dangerous to be released into society because of their violent tendencies, but whose
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Capital punishment, also called the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences.
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An execution warrant or death warrant is a warrant which authorizes the execution of a judgment of death (capital punishment) on an individual.

In the United States the Governor of the state, or the President of the United States in federal death penalty cases,
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cruel and unusual punishment for crimes is found in the English Bill of Rights signed in 1689 by King William III and Queen Mary II who were then the joint rulers of England following the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688.
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Parole can have different meanings depending on the area and judiciary system. All of the meanings derive from the French parole, meaning "(spoken) word".
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Probation is the suspension of a jail sentence - the criminal who is "on probation" has been convicted of a crime, but instead of serving jail time, has been found by the Court to be amenable to probation and will be returned to the community
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Under the criminal law of England and Wales, a tariff is the minimum period that a person serving an indefinite prison sentence must serve before that person becomes eligible for parole.
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In the British criminal justice system, a life licence specifies the conditions under which a prisoner sentenced to life in jail may be released.

A prisoner who has served their tariff (minimum sentence) becomes eligible for parole.
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A miscarriage of justice is primarily the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime that he or she did not commit. The term can also be applied to errors in the other direction — "errors of impunity" — and to civil cases, but those usages are rarer, though the
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