Chapter 279

Section 1. When a person convicted before a court is sentenced to imprisonment, the court may direct that the execution of the sentence, or any part thereof, be suspended and that he be placed on probation for such time and on such terms and conditions as it shall fix. When a per…

Section 10. If a person has been convicted of a crime punishable, at the discretion of the court, by fine or imprisonment in the jail or house of correction or by fine or imprisonment in the state prison, the court may impose upon him a conditional sentence, and order him to pay …

Section 11. Whoever is convicted of a crime, punishable by fine and imprisonment either in the jail or house of correction, except a person convicted under section thirty G of chapter one hundred and thirty-eight, may at the discretion of the court, be sentenced to be punished by…

Section 12. Except as provided in section twenty-eight of chapter two hundred and eighteen and in section twenty of chapter two hundred and nineteen, if a husband is convicted of an assault upon his wife, the court may, in addition to the other penalties imposed, or in lieu there…

Section 13. Except as provided in section twenty-eight of chapter two hundred and eighteen and in section twenty of chapter two hundred and nineteen, whoever is convicted of a misdemeanor may, in addition to the punishment prescribed by law, be required to recognize, with suffici…

Section 14. Such recognizance shall be filed of record in the superior court for the county, and, upon a breach of the condition thereof, the proceedings shall be as provided in chapter two hundred and seventy-five relative to recognizances to keep the peace and be of good behavi…

Section 15. Whoever is convicted of a crime, punishable by imprisonment in the jail or house of correction, may be sentenced to a jail or house of correction of any county, and the master or keeper shall receive and detain him in the same manner as if he had been sentenced by a c…

Section 16. A female, convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction, may be sentenced to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham.

Section 19. The sentence to imprisonment of a female convicted of a felony shall be executed in the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham; or the court imposing sentence in such a case may impose the sentence in a jail or house of correction provided by law in the ca…

Section 1A. When a person convicted before a court is sentenced to fine and imprisonment, the court may direct that the execution of the sentence, or any part thereof, be suspended, and that he be placed on probation for such time and on such terms and conditions as it shall fix.…

Section 1B. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the administrative justice of a department of the trial court may direct that both the clerk-magistrate's office and the probation office of one or more court divisions are to utilize a single funds collection and disburseme…

Section 2. In all cases the execution of orders of commitment to any training school or reformatory, however named, the department of youth services, or the department of public welfare may be suspended, and such suspension continued or revoked, in the same manner and with the sa…

Section 20. Subject to the preceding section, a sentence of a female convict of whatever age to confinement at hard labor shall be executed in a jail or house of correction or the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham as the court orders.

Section 23. No sentence of a male convict to imprisonment or confinement for more than two and one half years shall be executed in any jail or house of correction.

Section 24. If a convict is sentenced to the state prison, except as an habitual criminal, the court shall not fix the term of imprisonment, but shall fix a maximum and a minimum term for which he may be imprisoned. The maximum term shall not be longer than the longest term fixed…

Section 25. (a) Whoever is convicted of a felony and has been previously twice convicted and sentenced to state prison or state correctional facility or a federal corrections facility for a term not less than 3 years by the commonwealth, another state or the United States, and wh…

Section 26. A convict under sentence of imprisonment in the state prison may be further sentenced for a maximum term not longer than the longest term fixed by law for the punishment of the crime for which he has been convicted, and a minimum term not less than one year.

Section 27. If a convict serving a sentence of imprisonment in a jail or house of correction is convicted of a felony, the court may impose sentence of imprisonment in the state prison and order it to take effect forthwith, notwithstanding the former sentence. The convict shall t…

Section 3. At any time before final disposition of the case of a person placed under probation supervision or in the custody or care of a probation officer, the probation officer may arrest him without a warrant and take him before the court, or the court may issue a warrant for …

Section 30. If a convict sentenced by a court of the commonwealth or of the United States to imprisonment in the state prison or by a court of the United States to a federal penitentiary for a felony holds an office under the constitution or laws of the commonwealth at the time o…

Section 33A. The court on imposing a sentence of commitment to a correctional institution of the commonwealth, a house of correction, or a jail, shall order that the prisoner be deemed to have served a portion of said sentence, such portion to be the number of days spent by the p…

Section 34. When a convict is sentenced to pay a fine or to be imprisoned, the clerk of the court shall forthwith make out and deliver to the sheriff or to some officer in court a duly certified transcript from the minutes of the court of the conviction and sentence, which shall …

Section 35. When a person is committed to any correctional institution of the commonwealth or to any other public penal institution, on conviction of felony, the clerk of the court shall, without charge, transmit with the mittimus an attested copy of the complaint or indictment u…

Section 36. Except for commitments under sections thirty-five or forty-eight of chapter one hundred and twenty-three, no person shall be sentenced to the state farm except for drunkenness. Whoever is sentenced to the state farm for drunkenness may be there held in custody for not…

Section 37. Every warrant for the commitment of a person sentenced by a district court shall set forth the statutory name, if any, of the crime of which the person was convicted, and shall contain a citation of the statute, if any, under which the complaint was drawn.

Section 38. A sheriff, deputy sheriff or constable, when engaged in the execution of a warrant for the commitment of a person to a penal institution which is not in his own county, shall have the same powers in any county through which he may pass as he would have in his own coun…

Section 39. The officer serving the precept in a criminal case shall, without charging travel therefor, return it with his doings and fees endorsed thereon to the court or magistrate issuing it, who shall tax, allow and certify the fees as a part of the expenses in the case. In c…

Section 3A. Not later than seven days after a plea of guilty or after a verdict of guilty and in any event before adjournment of the sitting at which such plea or verdict has been taken and recorded in a case of felony wherein no question of law has been reported for decision by …

Section 4. Sentence shall be imposed upon conviction of a crime, regardless of whether an appeal has been taken, except as otherwise provided in section sixty-one in case of a conviction of a capital crime. If sentence is imposed upon conviction of a crime punishable by death, th…

Section 40. If a convict imprisoned under sentence is again sentenced to confinement in a prison other than that in which he is then held, the warrant for his commitment in pursuance of the second sentence shall be placed in the hands of the superintendent or keeper of the prison…

Section 41. If a corporation, after being duly served with process, fails to appear and answer to an indictment or complaint brought against it under the laws of the commonwealth, its default shall be recorded, the charges in the indictment or complaint taken to be true, and judg…

Section 42. If judgment is rendered against a corporation upon an indictment or complaint under the laws of the commonwealth, the court may issue a warrant of distress to compel payment of the penalty or assessment, as the case may be, as prescribed by law, together with interest…

Section 4B. Before disposition in any case where a defendant has been found guilty of any felony or any crime against the person or crime where physical injury to a person results, excluding any crime for which a sentence of death may be imposed, and which involves an identified …

Section 5. If no punishment for a crime is provided by statute, the court shall impose such sentence, according to the nature of the crime, as conforms to the common usage and practice in the commonwealth. If a person is convicted of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment, he m…

Section 57. Immediately upon the pronouncing of the sentence of death upon a person convicted of a capital crime, and immediately upon the revocation under section four of the stay of execution of such a sentence, the clerk shall make, sign and deliver to the sheriff of the count…

Section 58. The sheriff of the county in a jail whereof a prisoner sentenced to the punishment of death is confined, or a deputy designated by the sheriff, within ten days after receipt by the sheriff of the warrant for the execution of such sentence shall, at a time chosen by th…

Section 59. The sentence of death shall be executed by the superintendent of the state prison, or by a person acting under his direction, not earlier than twenty days nor later than thirty days after service upon said superintendent, or officer performing his duties, of a certifi…

Section 6. Whoever is convicted of a crime punishable wholly or in part by imprisonment in jail may be sentenced to such imprisonment in the house of correction or to confinement at hard labor either in the jail or house of correction; and if convicted of a crime punishable by im…

Section 60. The punishment of death shall be inflicted by causing a current of electricity of sufficient intensity to cause death to pass through the body of the prisoner, the application of said current to be continuous until he is dead or, at the election of the prisoner, by in…

Section 61. If a person convicted of a capital crime is, at the time when sentence is to be imposed, found by the court to be insane, it may cause such person to be removed to one of the state hospitals for such term and under such limitations as it may order. If a person convict…

Section 62. After examination by two psychiatrists designated by the commissioner of mental health, if it appears that a prisoner under sentence of death has become insane, the governor, with the advice and consent of the council, may, from time to time for a stated period, respi…

Section 63. The governor, with the advice and consent of the council, may from time to time respite the execution of a sentence of death for stated periods so long as he may consider it necessary to afford him, with the advice and consent of the council, an opportunity to investi…

Section 64. The execution of a sentence of death may be stayed from time to time for stated periods by the supreme judicial court, or a justice thereof, pending the final determination of any judicial question arising in or out of the case in which the sentence is imposed.

Section 65. There shall be present at the execution of the sentence of death, in addition to the superintendent, deputy and such officers of the state prison as the superintendent deems necessary, the commissioner of correction or his representative, the person performing the exe…

Section 66. There shall be a post mortem examination by a medical examiner for Norfolk county of the body of every prisoner executed in conformity with the sentence of a court.

Section 67. When the superintendent has executed the sentence of death upon a prisoner in obedience to a warrant from the court, he shall forthwith make return thereof under his hand, with the doings thereon, to the office of the clerk of said court.

Section 68. In all cases in which a sentence of death may be imposed, the court shall submit to the jury special questions concerning the issue of murder in the first degree. If the jury determines beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of murder in the first degr…

Section 69. (a) In all cases in which the death penalty may be authorized, the statutory aggravating circumstances are: (1) the murder was committed on a victim who was killed while serving in the performance of his official duties as one or more of the following: police officer,…

Section 6A. When a person is sentenced on a first offense to imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for a term which does not exceed one year, the court may order the sentence to be served in whole or in part on weekends and legal holidays or such other periodic interval a…

Section 6B. (a) As used in this section the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''Dependent child'', a person under 18 years of age. ''Primary caretaker of a dependent child'', a parent with whom a child has a primar…