INFAMY - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

INFAMYAuthored

The Law Mind • 1163 words

Definition

Infamy, in law, is the formal legal status produced by conviction of an infamous crime, resulting in the loss of civil honor and credit. At common law, an infamous person was rendered incompetent to testify as a witness in court proceedings, on the theory that conviction of certain crimes — particularly those involving fraud, dishonesty, or moral turpitude — destroyed the credibility upon which testimonial competence depended. Statutes in various jurisdictions extended the disabilities of infamy beyond witness incompetence to include disqualification from jury service, forfeiture of public office, and loss of voting rights.

Infamy in this sense is distinct from mere social disgrace. It is a legal qualification — a change in a person's recognized standing before the law — triggered by the judicial act of conviction for specified crimes.

The constitutional dimension of the term survives through the Fifth Amendment's grand jury clause, which protects against prosecution for "capital, or otherwise infamous" crimes without indictment by a grand jury. This usage preserves the concept in federal constitutional law even after the common law rules of testimonial incompetence were largely abolished.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The state of being infamous; a reprehensible occurrence or situation; a stigma disqualifying a person from being a witness.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Total loss of reputation; public disgrace; dishonor; ignominy. Also, a quality exposing to disgrace; extreme baseness or vileness.

The common meaning treats infamy as a matter of reputation and social standing — the condition of being widely known for wrongdoing. The legal meaning adds a technical dimension: infamy was not merely reputational but juridical, producing specific disabilities enforceable in court. A person could suffer social infamy without legal infamy, and vice versa. The gap matters most in historical sources, where writers may use the word in its common sense while legal texts use it in its precise technical sense.

Common Confusion

Infamy is sometimes conflated with attainder. Both arise from serious criminal conviction, but attainder extinguished the convicted person's civil existence altogether — including capacity to inherit, transmit property, or maintain civil suits — while infamy addressed the narrower question of credit and testimonial competence. Infamy is also distinguishable from mere moral turpitude, a phrase used in modern immigration and evidence law to describe the character of certain crimes; moral turpitude may or may not have constituted infamy at common law depending on jurisdiction and offense.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Infamy arising from the nature of the crime: Certain offenses were deemed infamous in themselves — treason, felony, and crimes involving fraud or dishonesty (perjury, forgery, swindling) — regardless of the sentence imposed.

Infamy arising from the punishment: In some common law contexts and in the constitutional sense under Ex parte Wilson, infamy attached based on the severity of the punishment imposed, particularly imprisonment at hard labor or in a penitentiary, rather than the formal classification of the offense.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers face two distinct problems with this term across the Law Mind corpus.

First, the legal force of infamy as a testimonial disqualification was effectively abolished in England by statute in the nineteenth century and was gradually removed by evidence reforms in American jurisdictions. Bouvier notes this explicitly: the statutory abolition rendered the subject "obsolete in England" and "equally so in the United States as a question of evidence." This means that treatises and cases from different periods are answering different questions when they discuss infamy. Pre-abolition sources treat it as an active evidentiary rule; post-abolition sources discuss it primarily as a historical artifact or in connection with constitutional doctrine.

Second, the constitutional survival of the term through the Fifth Amendment's grand jury clause creates a living strand of doctrine where the historical meaning remains operative. Federal cases interpreting what crimes are "otherwise infamous" for grand jury purposes — tracing back to Ex parte Wilson, 114 U.S. 417 (1885), and its progeny — use the historical common law framework as interpretive background. Researchers working on grand jury doctrine must engage the historical material actively, not treat it as merely antiquarian.

Researchers should also note that Anderson's entry for infamy in the Law Mind corpus appears to have been extracted alongside material on "credit" — a neighboring concept — which may produce confusion in keyword searches. The cross-contamination of entries in digitized versions of Anderson's is worth verifying against a print source.

Jurisdictional variation is significant: some states codified lists of infamous crimes producing civil disabilities, while others relied on common law categories. These lists did not always align, making it dangerous to assume that the infamous crimes of one jurisdiction map onto those of another.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's (both editions) and Bouvier agree on the core definition: infamy is the legal status produced by conviction of an infamous crime, with the primary consequence at common law being incompetence as a witness. Bouvier is the most thorough, noting the historical mechanism — conviction of offenses "inconsistent with the common principles of honesty and humanity" — and flagging the constitutional dimension through the Maine and Wilson materials.

Webster's 1913 captures both the common and legal meanings in a single entry, which reflects the overlap in ordinary educated usage of the period. The third sub-definition in Webster's ("that loss of character, or public disgrace, which a convict incurs, and by which he is at common law rendered incompetent as a witness") essentially mirrors the legal dictionaries, suggesting the legal meaning had penetrated general usage by the late nineteenth century.

What the historical dictionaries do not adequately address is the post-abolition constitutional function of the term. Bouvier gestures at it with the grand jury clause reference but does not develop it. Researchers should not rely on the historical dictionaries alone for the constitutional doctrine; modern federal case law must be consulted separately.

Jurisdictional Note

The common law disabilities of infamy were abolished or substantially modified by statute in most American states and in England during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, primarily through evidence reform acts that restored competency to testify regardless of prior conviction. The constitutional meaning of "infamous crime" under the Fifth Amendment remains a matter of federal law, interpreted by federal courts without direct parallel in state constitutional provisions, which vary considerably in their grand jury requirements.

INFAMYmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

A qualification of a man's legal status produced by his conviction of an infamous crime and the consequent loss of honor and credit, which, at common law, rendered him incompetent as a witness, and by statute in some jurisdictions entails other disabilities.

INFAMYmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

A qualification of a man’s legal status produced by his conviction of an infamous crime and the consequent loss of honor and credit, which, at common law, rendered him incompetent as a witness, and by statute in some jurisdictions entails other disabilities. McCafferty v. Guyer. 59 Pa. 116; Ex parte Wilson, 114 U. S. 417, 5 Sup.

INFAMYmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

General credit. The general credit of a witness is his character as a credit-worthy Particular credit. Credit as a witness in a particular action." See CREDIBLE. 2. The capacity of being trusted.8 man. The trust reposed in an individual, by those who deal with him, that he is able to meet his engagemonts.9 In an enlarged commercial sense, implies reputation and confidence; a basis on which the possessor may trade without immediate payment.10 The term also comprehends what is due to another person; and, again, time given in which to pay for a thing bought. Credit is, strictly, a benefit as a means to procure property, and is not in itself recognized as property. Its whole office is to obtain trust. It is available to another by gift, sale, etc. Given gratuitously, it is ، loan; given for a consideration, a sale of credit. Every contract for labor, not paid for in advance, is a contract upon credit; because the labor, when once performed, cannot be recalled. It is otherwise where property is to be paid for on delivery, for a delivery need not be made. 11 1 See 1 Greenl. Ev. §§ 2, 49, 431; 3 Bl. Com. 369. 21 Whart. Eν. § 404. 31 Whart. Εν. § 413. 41 Whart. Ev. § 415. 1 Whart. Εν. § 416. 1 Whart. Ev. §§ 391, 417. 1 Bemis v. Kyle, 5 Abb. Pr. 233 (1867). Dry Dock Bank v. American Ins. Co., 3 N. Y. 356 (180). [Owen v. Branch Bank at Mobile, 3 Ala. 267 (1842). 10 [Rindge v. Judson, 24 Ν. Υ. 71 (1861). 11 Ketchum v. City of Buffalo, 14 N. Y. 365 (1856). shall Credit, bill of. “No State emit Bills of Credit," 1 that is, issue paper intended to circulate through the community, for its ordinary purposes as money, and redeemable at a future day.2 A paper issued by the sovereign power, containing a pledge of faith, and designed to circulate as money.3 The term may cover certificates of indebtedness, bearing interest; 2 but not bills of a bank chartered by a State, even though the State be the sole stockholder, nor, even if it pledges its credit for their payment, in case the bank fails to redeem them.4 Credit, letter of. A letter written by one merchant or correspondent to another requesting him to credit the bearer with a sum of money.5 See LETTER, 3, Of credit. Mutual credits. In laws of set-off, "a knowledge on both sides of an existing debt due to one party, and a credit by the other party, founded on and trusting to such debt, as a means of discharging it." 6 See A COUNTS, Mutual; DEBTS, Mutual. Creditor. In a strict literal sense, he who voluntarily trusts or gives credit to another, upon bond, bill, note, book, or simple contract, for money or other property. In a liberal sense, he who has a legal demand for money or other property which has come to the hands of another, without the consent of the former, but by mistake or accident, and to the payment or possession of which, or to compensation in damages therefor, he is entitled upon the ground of an implied promise. In a still more general sense, he who has a right by law to demand and recover of another a sum of money on any account whatever.7 Not simply a person to whom a debt is due, but a person to whom any obligation is due, the last not being the usual meaning.8 1 Constitution, Art. I, sec. 10, cl. 1. 2 Craig v. Missouri, 4 Pet. 431 (1830), Marshall, C. J. Briscoe v. Bank of Kentucky, 11 Pet. 314 (1837), McLean, J. 4 Darrington v. Bank of Alabama, 13 How. 16 (1851). See Legal Tender Case, 110 U. S. 443 (1883); Virginia Coupon Cases, 114 id. 283 (1885); 2 Story, Const. §§ 136264; 4 Kent, 408. 5 Mechanics' Bank v. N. Y. & New Haven R. Co., 4 Duer, 586 (1855): McCulloch's Commercial Dict. 2 Story, Eq. § 1435; Munger v. Albany City Nat. Bank, 85 N. Y. 590 (1881), Folger, C. J. 7 [Stanley v. Ogden, 2 Root, 261 (1795).] 8 [New Jersey Ins. Co. v. Meeker, 37 N. J. L. 300 (1875), Beasley, C. J. An indorser may sue all prior parties concurrently or successively, but can have only one satisfaction.1 Contracts of indorsement are to be construed according to the law of the place where made, unless it appears that they are to be performed according to the laws of another State. See further ACCEPT, 2; ACCOMMODATION; ASSIGN, 2; BEARER; BLANK; DESCRIPTIO PERSONAE; EXCHANGE, 3, Bill of; FAITH, Good; GUARANTY; NEGOTIATE, 2; NOTE, 2; PROTEST, 2. The condition of being without repute, honor, or character: disqualification to testify as a witness or to sit as a juror, on account of conviction of a heinous offense. Whence infamous. "No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger. ۵יי. "Infamous crime" is descriptive of an offense that subjects a person to infamous punishment or prevents his being a witness. The fact that an offense may be affected by the changes of public opinion from one age to another. For more than a century, imprisonment at hard labor in the State prison or penitentiary has been considered an infamous punishment, in England and America. Such imprisonment with or without hard labor is at present considered infamous punishment.2 The term "infamous" - without fame or good report-was applied at common law to certain crimes, upon conviction of which a person became incompetent to testify as a witness. This was upon the theory that a person would not commit a crime of such heinous character, unless so depraved as to be wholly insensible to the obligation of an oath, and, therefore, unworthy of credit. These crimes are treason, felony, and the crimen falsi. As to what or whether all species of the last are infamous, there is United States v. Maxwell, 3 Dill. 276 (1875), cases, 1 Brooklyn City, &c. R. Co. v. Nat. Bank of the ReDillon, Cir. J.; People v. Sponsler, 1 Dak. 297 (1876); public, 102 U. S. 35-37 (1880), cases. 2 Briggs v. Latham, 36 Kan. 259-61 (1887), cases. 3 [Gould, Plead. 42. City of Kenosha v. Lamson, 9 Wall. 482 (1869); 1 Chitty, Pl. 290. • Constitution, Amd. V. Jones v. Robbins, 8 Gray, 348-49 (1857) 2 Mackin v. United States, 117 U. S. 350-52 (1886), Gray, J.; Exp. Wilson, 114 id. 429, 422-29 (1885), cases, Gray, J.; Parkinson v. United States, 121 id. 281 (1887). See also Star-Route Cases (United States v. Brady), 3 Cr. Law Mag. 69 (1881).

INFAMYn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Total loss of reputation; public disgrace; dishonor; ignominy; indignity. The afflicted queen would not yield, and said she would not . . . submit to such infamy. Bp. Burnet. A quality which exposes to disgrace; extreme baseness or vileness; as, the infamy of an action. That loss of character, or public disgrace, which a convict incurs, and by which he is at common law rendered incompetent as a witness.

infamynoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

The state of being infamous. | A reprehensible occurrence or situation. | A stigma attaching to a person's character that disqualifies them from being a witness.

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