Massachusetts Statutes

Section 98B. Whoever, knowingly and wilfully, employs discriminatory practices in the administration or giving of employment on public works or projects, or in the dispensing or giving of public relief or transitional assistance or any public benefit, because of race, color, reli…

Section 98C. Whoever publishes any false written or printed material with intent to maliciously promote hatred of any group of persons in the commonwealth because of race, color or religion shall be guilty of libel and shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dol…

Section 99. Interception of wire and oral communications.— A. Preamble. The general court finds that organized crime exists within the commonwealth and that the increasing activities of organized crime constitute a grave danger to the public welfare and safety. Organized crime, a…

Section 99A. Whoever secretly overhears, or attempts secretly to overhear or to have any other person overhear the deliberations of a jury by use of a device commonly known as a dictograph or dictaphone, or however otherwise described, or by any similar device or arrangement with…

Section 1. A spouse or parent shall be guilty of a felony and shall be subject to the penalties set forth in section fifteen A if: (1) he abandons his spouse or minor child without making reasonable provisions for the support of his spouse or minor child or both of them; or (2) h…

Section 10. Sections one to eight, inclusive, shall be so interpreted and construed as to effectuate their general purpose to make uniform the law of those states enacting their provisions.

Section 15. A parent of a minor child born out of wedlock whether or not the child was born in the commonwealth who wilfully neglects or refuses to contribute reasonably to the support of the child or who leaves the commonwealth and goes into another state without making reasonab…

Section 15A. (1) The penalty for violation of sections one and fifteen of this chapter shall be by fine or by imprisonment or by both fine and imprisonment as specified below. (2) A person who abandons his spouse or minor child without making reasonable provisions for the support…

Section 15B. Whoever receives or conceals an asset of another knowing that said asset is being transferred for the purpose of concealing it to avoid payment of an order or judgment for support issued pursuant to the provisions of chapter 119, 207, 208, 209, 209A, 209C, 209D or 27…

Section 16. The provisions of sections two, six, seven and ten shall apply in proceedings under sections one and fifteen.

Section 17. If the court having jurisdiction of a case under sections fifteen to eighteen, inclusive, becomes satisfied that the alleged father and the mother have married each other and the child has become or will be the legitimate child of the alleged father or that it is for …

Section 18. If money is forfeited or recovered upon a recognizance or deposit in lieu thereof given in proceedings under sections fifteen to eighteen, inclusive, or any of them, the court in which such proceedings are pending may order such money paid to the probation officer and…

Section 18A. (a) Any order issued by a court pursuant to sections one, five, or fifteen as those sections appeared prior to the effective date of this section directing the defendant to pay certain sums periodically to the probation officer as a condition of releasing the defenda…

Section 2. Proceedings under section one shall be begun if in the superior court, in the county in which is situated the place where the husband and wife last lived together or where the husband or wife or parent of the child is living, and, if begun in a district court, in the c…

Section 20. Any person, over eighteen, who, being possessed of sufficient means, unreasonably neglects or refuses to provide for the support and maintenance of his parent, whether father or mother, residing in the commonwealth, when such parent through misfortune and without faul…

Section 21. Proceedings under the preceding section shall be begun, if in the superior court, in the county in which is situated the place where the defendant or the parent lives, and, if begun in a district court, in the court having such place within its judicial district. Comp…

Section 22. Before trial, with the consent of the defendant, or after entry of a plea of guilty or nolo contendere, or after conviction, the court may make for the benefit of such destitute parent orders similar to those provided by section five; and the practice established by t…

Section 23. The father or mother of any needy disabled person who unreasonably neglects or refuses to provide for the support and maintenance of such person shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than two years, or both.

Section 3. The court imposing a fine under section fifteen A may at any time order it paid in whole or in part to a probation officer, to be paid by him to the spouse or to the city, town, corporation, society or person actually supporting the spouse, child or children, or to the…

Section 6. The court shall also have the power to release the defendant from custody on probation for a period so fixed, upon his or her entering into a recognizance, with or without surety, in such sum as the court may order and approve. The condition of the recognizance shall b…

Section 7. No other or greater evidence shall be required to prove the marriage of the husband and wife, or that the alleged father is the parent of the child, than may be required to prove the same facts in a civil action. In any prosecution begun under section one, both husband…

Section 8. In proceedings under sections one or fifteen against a parent, relative to any minor child, it shall not of itself be a defence that the defendant has ceased to have custody or the right to custody of such child on his own acquiescence or by judicial action. The legal …

Section 1. A crime punishable by death or imprisonment in the state prison is a felony. All other crimes are misdemeanors.

Section 2. Whoever aids in the commission of a felony, or is accessory thereto before the fact by counselling, hiring or otherwise procuring such felony to be committed, shall be punished in the manner provided for the punishment of the principal felon.

Section 3. Whoever counsels, hires or otherwise procures a felony to be committed may be indicted and convicted as an accessory before the fact, either with the principal felon or after his conviction; or may be indicted and convicted of the substantive felony, whether the princi…

Section 4. Whoever, after the commission of a felony, harbors, conceals, maintains or assists the principal felon or accessory before the fact, or gives such offender any other aid, knowing that he has committed a felony or has been accessory thereto before the fact, with intent …

Section 5. An accessory to a felony after the fact may be indicted, convicted and punished, whether the principal felon has or has not been previously convicted, or is or is not amenable to justice, either in the county where he became an accessory or in the county where the prin…

Section 6. Whoever attempts to commit a crime by doing any act toward its commission, but fails in its perpetration, or is intercepted or prevented in its perpetration, shall, except as otherwise provided, be punished as follows: First, by imprisonment in the state prison for not…

Section 7. Any person who commits the crime of conspiracy shall be punished as follows: First, if the purpose of the conspiracy or any of the means for achieving the purpose of the conspiracy is a felony punishable by death or imprisonment for life, by a fine of not more than ten…

Section 8. Whoever solicits, counsels, advises, or otherwise entices another to commit a crime that may be punished by imprisonment in the state prison, with the intent that the person, in fact, commit or procure the commitment of such crime shall, except as otherwise provided, b…

Section 1. This act shall not in any citation or enumeration of the statutes be reckoned as one of the acts of nineteen hundred and twenty, but may be designated as the General Laws, adding the number of the chapter and section when necessary, and shall take effect from and after…

Section 10. All acts and resolves or parts thereof in force at the time of the taking effect of the General Laws which are of limited duration shall continue in effect according to their terms, notwithstanding any provisions of said General Laws inconsistent therewith. NOTE: The …

Section 2. The provisions of the General Laws, so far as they are the same as those of existing statutes, shall be construed as a continuation thereof and not as new enactments, and a reference in a statute which has not been repealed to provisions of law which are revised and re…

Section 3. The repeal of a law by this act shall not revive a law heretofore repealed or superseded, nor an office heretofore abolished.

Section 4. The repeal of a law by this act shall not affect any act done, ratified or confirmed, any liability incurred, or any right accrued or established, or any action, suit or proceeding commenced or had in a civil case, before the repeal takes effect, but the proceedings in…

Section 5. The repeal of a law by this act shall not affect any punishment, penalty or forfeiture incurred under such law, except that any provision of the General Laws by which a punishment, penalty or forfeiture is mitigated may be extended and applied to any judgment pronounce…

Section 6. The repeal of a law by this act shall not affect any action, suit or prosecution pending at the time of the repeal for an offence committed, or for the recovery of a penalty or forfeiture incurred, under any of the laws repealed, except that the proceedings therein sha…

Section 7. Whoever, when said repeal takes effect, holds an office under any of the laws repealed shall continue to hold it according to the tenure thereof, unless it is abolished or unless a different provision relative thereto is made by the General Laws.

Section 8. The salary or compensation of any incumbent of any office or position at the time when the General Laws take effect shall not be diminished thereby, notwithstanding the repeal therein of any act establishing such salary or compensation and notwithstanding that the Gene…

Section 9. If a limitation or period of time prescribed in any of the acts repealed for acquiring a right, barring a remedy or any other purpose has begun to run, and the same or a similar limitation is prescribed in the General Laws, the time of limitation shall continue to run …

Express Repeal of Certain Acts and Resolves