Massachusetts Statutes

Section 8A. A person shall not be held to answer in a district court or the housing court of the city of Boston, the western division of the housing court department, the northeastern division of the housing court department, the southeastern division of the housing court departm…

Section 9. A person shall not be punished for a crime unless he has been legally convicted thereof by a court having competent jurisdiction of the cause and of the person.

Section 1. For the purposes of this chapter, the following words shall have the following meanings:— ''Board'', the witness protection board established in section 2. ''Prosecuting officer'', the attorney general or a district attorney from each county. ''Critical witness'', any …

Section 10. Nothing in this section shall be construed as creating a right, entitlement or cause of action on behalf of any person against any public employee, public agency, the commonwealth, or any agency responsible for the provision of services set forth in this chapter. The …

Section 11. The board shall establish a liaison with the United States Marshal's office in order to facilitate the legal processes over which the federal government has sole authority. The liaison shall coordinate all requests for federal assistance relating to witness protection…

Section 12. Records of the board and all records relating to petitions and filed with the board shall be confidential and shall not be public records. Section 11A and section 11A1/2 of chapter 30A shall not apply to meetings, discussions or deliberations of the board.

Section 13. (a) A prosecuting officer may disclose or refuse to disclose the identity or location of a protected witness, or any other matter concerning a protected witness or the program, after balancing the danger such disclosure may pose to the protected witness, the detriment…

Section 2. There is hereby established a witness protection board within the executive office of public safety consisting of the secretary of public safety, the attorney general, the auditor, a chief of police appointed by the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, and a dis…

Section 3. In any criminal investigation or proceeding, the prosecuting officer with jurisdiction over the investigation or proceeding may file a petition with the board requesting witness protection services for a critical witness if the prosecuting officer certifies that such w…

Section 4. If a prosecuting officer determines that exigent circumstances exist regarding an imminent threat to the safety of a critical witness, he may take any appropriate temporary action he determines is necessary to protect the safety of the witness without prior approval of…

Section 5. Protective services provided to a critical witness may include, but not be limited to:— (a) any necessary armed protection or escort, marked or unmarked surveillance or periodic visits or contact by law enforcement officials prior, during or subsequent to a criminal pr…

Section 6. Before providing witness protection services to any critical witness under this chapter, except where it is determined that temporary protective services are necessary pursuant to section 4, the prosecuting officer shall enter into a written memorandum of understanding…

Section 7. If a witness, after being offered protective services under this chapter, at any time declines to receive such services, the prosecuting officer shall request that the witness make such refusal in writing, or, if the witness refuses to document such refusal of services…

Section 8. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, or any regulation, rule or ordinance, if a petition and plan for witness protection, approved by the board, requires relocation of a critical witness within the public housing system, such relocation shall be …

Section 9. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, or any regulation, rule or ordinance, if a petition and plan for witness protection, approved by the witness protection board, requires relocation of a critical witness to another public school within or witho…

Section 1. Treason against the commonwealth shall consist only in levying war against it, or in adhering to the enemies thereof, giving them aid and comfort; it shall not be bailable.

Section 10A. Whoever wears the uniform, or any distinctive part thereof, of the United States army, navy, marine corps, revenue cutter service, or coast guard, or of the national guard, or of any organization enumerated in section seventy of chapter two hundred and sixty-six, or …

Section 11. Whoever by speech or by exhibition, distribution or promulgation of any written or printed document, paper or pictorial representation advocates, advises, counsels or incites assault upon any public official, or the killing of any person, or the unlawful destruction o…

Section 14A. Any city or town of the commonwealth may, through its school committee, participate in the educational activities under the United States Educational Program conducted by the department of state pursuant to Public Law 584, 79th Congress, and Public Law 402, 80th Cong…

Section 16. The term ''subversive organization'' as used in sections seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty-one, twenty-two and twenty-three of this chapter shall mean any form of association of three or more persons, however named or characterized, and by whatever legal or non-le…

Section 16A. The Communist Party is hereby declared to be a subversive organization.

Section 17. A subversive organization is hereby declared to be unlawful.

Section 18. The attorney general shall bring an action in the superior court by an information or petition in equity against any organization which he has reasonable cause to believe is a subversive organization. The fact that such information or petition has been or is to be fil…

Section 19. Any person who becomes or remains a member of any organization knowing it to be a subversive organization shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than three years or in jail for not more than two and one half years or by a fine of not more t…

Section 2. Whoever commits treason against the commonwealth shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life.

Section 20. No person who has been convicted of a violation of the provisions of section eleven, nineteen or twenty-three shall be eligible to election or appointment to any public office, or employment, nor as a teacher in any public or private educational institution, nor shall…

Section 21. Whoever destroys or conceals books, records, files, membership lists or funds belonging to an organization which he knows to be a subversive organization shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than three years or in jail for not more than t…

Section 22. Whoever being in charge of an auditorium, hall or other building shall knowingly permit it to be used by the Communist Party or by an organization which has been adjudicated a subversive organization under the provisions of section eighteen shall be punished by a fine…

Section 23. Whoever contributes money or any other property having a value in money to an organization which he knows to be a subversive organization shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than three years or in jail for not more than two and one half …

Section 3. Whoever, having knowledge of the commission of treason, conceals the same and does not as soon as may be disclose and make known such treason to the governor, or to a justice of the supreme judicial or superior court, shall be guilty of misprision of treason, and shall…

Section 4. No person shall be convicted of treason except by the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act of treason whereof he stands indicted, unless he confesses the same in open court.

Section 5. Whoever publicly burns or otherwise mutilates, tramples upon, defaces or treats contemptuously the flag of the United States or of Massachusetts, whether such flag is public or private property, or whoever displays such flag or any representation thereof upon which are…

Section 6. The preceding section shall not apply to publications issued solely for the purpose of giving information in relation to the flag, or of promoting patriotism or of encouraging the study of American history, or to any newspaper, periodical, book, pamphlet, certificate, …

Section 7. Whoever publicly mutilates, tramples upon, defaces or treats contemptuously the flag or emblem of a foreign country at peace with the United States, whether such flag or emblem is public or private property, or whoever displays such flag or emblem or any representation…

Section 8. Whoever displays the flag or emblem of a foreign country upon the outside of a state, county, city or town building or public schoolhouse shall be punished by a fine of not more than twenty dollars; but, except as to public schoolhouses, this section shall not apply wh…

Section 9. Whoever plays, sings or renders the ''Star Spangled Banner'' in any public place, theatre, motion picture hall, restaurant or café, or at any public entertainment, other than as a whole and separate composition or number, without embellishment or addition in the way of…

Section 1. Murder committed with deliberately premeditated malice aforethought, or with extreme atrocity or cruelty, or in the commission or attempted commission of a crime punishable with death or imprisonment for life, is murder in the first degree. Murder which does not appear…

Section 10. Whoever, except as provided in sections thirty-two to fifty, inclusive, of chapter one hundred and forty-seven, is present at such fight as an aid, second or surgeon, or advises, encourages or promotes such fight, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison …

Section 11. An inhabitant or resident of this commonwealth who, by previous appointment or engagement made in the same, leaves the same and engages in a fight with another person outside the limits thereof shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than fi…

Section 12. Whoever directly or indirectly, except as provided in sections 32 to 50A, inclusive, of chapter 147, gives, promotes or engages in a public boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts or other unarmed combative sporting match or sparring exhibition, or engages in a private…

Section 13. Whoever commits manslaughter shall, except as hereinafter provided, be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than twenty years or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars and imprisonment in jail or a house of correction for not more than tw…

Section 13A. (a) Whoever commits an assault or an assault and battery upon another shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than 21/2 years in a house of correction or by a fine of not more than $1,000. A summons may be issued instead of a warrant for the arrest of any pers…

Section 13B. Whoever commits an indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14 shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 10 years, or by imprisonment in the house of correction for not more than 21/2 years. A prosecution commenced under …