Are there penalties that will still affect me even if my felony is reduced to a misdemeanor?

Yes. Unfortunately, reducing your felony conviction to a misdemeanor doesn’t get you completely off the felony hook. Some penalties will carry over and continue to affect you, even after your felony conviction is reduced to a misdemeanor. These include:

    If your conviction was for a serious or violent felony, it will still count as a prior “strike” under California’s Three Strikes Law;[3076]
    If your conviction requires you to register as a sex offender under Penal Code section 290, you will still have to register after your felony is reduced;[3077]
    You may still be subject to federal firearms restrictions;[3078]
    Some state licensing agencies may still consider your conviction a felony.[3079]

Also, please note that getting your felony conviction reduced to a misdemeanor under Penal Code section 17(b) does NOT give you any legal rights to be compensated for any time that you served that is more than what you could have been sentenced to if you had been convicted of a misdemeanor originally.

  1. 3076

    Gebremicael v. Cal. Com'n on Teacher Credentialing (2004) 118 Cal. App. 4th 1477, 1486 ("Similarly, for purposes of the "Three Strikes law", the Legislature has declared a prior felony conviction proven by the prosecution as a prior strike retains its status as a felony even if it had been reduced after initial sentencing to a misdemeanor under Penal Code section 17. Cal. Penal Code, § 667, subd. (d)(1), 1170.12, subd. (b)(1)."). However, a reduced felony cannot act as a "prior" crime for a future offense that requires a predicate (that is, preexisting) felony conviction. See People v. Gilbreth 156 Cal. App. 4th 53, 57 (2007).

  2. 3077

    Cal. Penal Code § 17(e).

  3. 3078

    18 U.S.C. 921-930. Under federal law, most domestic violence convictions trigger a lifetime firearms ban, regardless of what state you were convicted in. Most people convicted of a crime of domestic violence in California will never be able to own a gun legally anywhere in the United States.

  4. 3079

    See, for example, Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 6100, 6102 (for purposes of attorney discipline or disbarment, a felony conviction remains a felony regardless of post-conviction proceedings under Cal. Penal Code § 17(b)).