Infamous Punishment Law and Legal Definition
Infamous punishment is a punishment characterized by infamy. It is a punishment for a felony rather than punishment for a misdemeanor.
What punishments are considered as infamous may be affected by the changes of public opinion from one age to another. In former times, being put in the stocks was not considered as necessarily infamous. And by the first Judiciary Act of the United States, whipping was classed with moderate fines and short terms of imprisonment in limiting the criminal jurisdiction of the District Courts to cases where no other punishment than whipping, not exceeding thirty stripes, a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or a term of imprisonment not exceeding six months, is to be inflicted. But at the present day either stocks or whipping might be thought an infamous punishment. [Ex parte Wilson, 114 U.S. 417, 428 (U.S. 1885)].
