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Criminal penalties for not reporting a felony that one has concealed.

By Marks & Katz, LLC

Bill of Rights (Image from the public domain.) Every once in awhile, the media reports on federal prosecutions for "misprision of felony". This blog entry seeks to debunk any notion that it is a crime merely to fail to report a crime, as opposed to concealing a felony cognizable by a federal court and not reporting it.  The federal misprision of felony statute is at 18 U.S.C. § 4, which provides: "Misprision of felony. Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both...continue to full post

Full post as published by Underdog on March 25, 2008 (boomark / email).