Massachusetts Statutes

Section 1. The following words, as used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, shall have the following meanings:— ''Assessment'', a thorough and complete measurement of the needs of an individual in, but not limited to, the following areas: education, vocational…

Section 10. A probation officer of a district court, in Boston, the municipal court of the city of Boston or the officer's official designee, when gathering information in accordance with section 85 of chapter 276, shall, at or prior to arraignment of a defendant on a criminal co…

Section 11. A defendant who is determined to be a veteran, on active service or has a history of military service in the armed forces of the United States and who is eligible for diversion or treatment under section 10 may, at arraignment, be afforded a 14–day continuance by the …

Section 12. Nothing in this chapter or chapter 276B shall limit or govern the authority of a district attorney or a police department to divert an offender or to require a district attorney or police department to accept an offender into a program that they operate.

Section 2. The district courts, and in Boston, the municipal court of the city of Boston, shall have jurisdiction to divert to a program, as defined in section one, any person who is charged with an offense or offenses against the commonwealth for which a term of imprisonment may…

Section 3. The probation officers of a district or municipal court, or an official designee of such a probation officer, when gathering information in accordance with section 85 of chapter 276, shall also screen each defendant for the purpose of enabling the judge at arraignment …

Section 4. (a) For the purposes of this section, the term ''serious mental illness'' shall mean a current or recent diagnosis by a qualified mental health professional of at least 1 of the following disorders described in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical …

Section 5. Upon the expiration of a fourteen-day continuance granted pursuant to section three, the director of the program to which the defendant has been referred shall submit to the court a written report of its assessment. The report shall contain the information obtained thr…

Section 6. During a stay of proceedings or a continuance without a finding, as provided in section five, the director of a program shall submit periodic reports to the court relative to the progress of the defendant. The director shall also report violations of program conditions…

Section 7. Upon the expiration of the initial ninety-day stay of proceedings or a continuance without a finding, the program director shall submit to the court a report indicating the successful completion of the program by a defendant or recommending an extension of the stay of …

Section 1. As used in this chapter the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''Community-based restorative justice program'', a voluntary program established on restorative justice principles that engages parties to a …

Section 2. Participation in a community-based restorative justice program shall be voluntary and may be available to both a juvenile and adult defendant. A juvenile or adult defendant may be diverted to a community-based restorative justice program pre-arraignment or at any stage…

Section 3. A person shall not be eligible to participate in a community-based restorative justice program prior to conviction or adjudication if that person is charged with: (i) a sexual offense as defined in section 1 of chapter 123A; (ii) an offense against a family or househol…

Section 4. Participation in a community-based restorative justice program shall not be used as evidence or as an admission of guilt, delinquency or civil liability in current or subsequent legal proceedings against any participant. Any statement made by a juvenile or adult defend…

Section 5. (a) There shall be established a restorative justice advisory committee to review community-based restorative justice programs. The advisory committee shall consist of 17 members: 1 of whom shall be: the secretary of public safety and security or a designee who shall s…

Section 1. The clerk of the courts for each county, except Suffolk, Middlesex, Essex, Hampden, Norfolk, Plymouth and Worcester shall, not less than twenty-eight days before the commencement of the first sitting of the superior court for criminal business in each year, issue writs…

Section 11. If the grand jury are dismissed before the court is adjourned without day, they may be summoned to attend again in the same sitting, at such time as the court orders.

Section 14. No member of the grand jury which has found an indictment shall serve upon the jury for the trial thereof.

Section 14A. Any person shall have the right to consult with counsel and to have counsel present at every step of any criminal proceeding at which such person is present, including the presentation of evidence, questioning, or examination before the grand jury; provided, however,…

Section 15. The grand jury shall, during its session, make daily return to the court of all cases wherein it has finally determined not to present an indictment against an accused person held in custody pending its action, and such person shall thereupon forthwith be discharged b…

Section 18. The circumstances of the act may be stated according to their legal effect, without a full description thereof.

Section 19. If the name of an accused person is unknown to the grand jury, he may be described by a fictitious name or by any other practicable description, with an allegation that his real name is unknown. An indictment of the defendant by a fictitious or erroneous name shall no…

Section 1A. Upon a written notice by the attorney general or any district attorney made to any justice of the superior court that public necessity requires further time by a grand jury to complete an investigation then in progress, the court may order such grand jury to continue …

Section 2. The clerk of the superior court for criminal business in Suffolk county shall, not less than twenty-eight days before the first Mondays of January and July, respectively, issue writs of venire facias for forty-five veniremen of whom thirty-nine shall be from Boston and…

Section 20. The time and place of the commission of the crime need not be alleged unless it is an essential element thereof. The allegation of time in the caption shall, unless otherwise stated, be considered as an allegation that the act was committed before the finding of the i…

Section 21. The means by which a crime is committed need not be alleged in the indictment unless an essential element of the crime.

Section 22. If an allegation relative to a written instrument consisting wholly or in part of writing, print or figures is necessary, it may describe such instrument by any name or designation by which it is usually known, or by the purport thereof, without setting out a copy or …

Section 23. If an allegation relative to any bullion, money, notes, bank notes, checks, drafts, bills of exchange, obligations or other securities for money of any country, state, county, city, town, bank, corporation, partnership or person is necessary, it may describe it as mon…

Section 24. The value or price of property need not be stated, unless an essential element of the crime. If the nature, degree or punishment of a crime depends upon the fact that the property exceeds or does not exceed a certain value, it may be described, as the case may be, of …

Section 25. If an indictment for a crime involving the commission or attempted commission of an injury to property describes the property with sufficient certainty in other respects to identify the act, it need not allege the name of the owner.

Section 26. If one element of the criminality of an act is its commission in a public place, and if such place is not more particularly defined in the statute, the act may be alleged generally to have been committed ''in a public place''.

Section 27. In an indictment for the larceny of an animal, or for any other crime in respect thereof, it may be described by the name by which it is commonly known, without stating its age or sex or whether it is alive or dead.

Section 28. If it is necessary to set forth the judicial proceedings in any case then or formerly pending in any court, civil or military, or any proceedings before a justice of the peace or any other magistrate, only the substance of said proceedings or such part thereof as shal…

Section 29. An allegation that the defendant committed the act charged shall be a sufficient allegation that he was criminally responsible therefor.

Section 2A. The clerk of the courts in any county, or in Suffolk county the clerk of the superior court for criminal business, shall, upon written request of the attorney general accompanied by a certificate that public necessity requires such action, signed by the chief justice …

Section 2B. The clerk of courts in Middlesex county shall, not less than seventy days before the first Monday of January and July, respectively, issue letters of venire to the jury commissioner for thirty-five prospective grand jurors from whom the court shall select twenty-three…

Section 2C. The clerk of the court for Hampden county shall, not less than twenty-eight days before the first Mondays of January and May, and the second Monday of September respectively, issue writs of venire facias for forty-five veniremen from whom the court shall select twenty…

Section 2D. The clerk of the court for Plymouth County shall, not less than twenty-eight days before the first Mondays of January and May, and the second Monday of September respectively, issue writs of venire facias for forty-five veniremen from whom the court shall select twent…

Section 2E. The clerk of the court for Worcester county shall, not less than twenty-eight days before the first Mondays of January and May, and the second Monday of September, respectively, issue writs of venire facias for fifty veniremen from whom the court shall select twenty-t…

Section 2F. The clerk of the court for Norfolk county shall, not less than twenty-eight days before the first Mondays of January and July respectively, issue writs of venire facias for fifty veniremen from whom the court shall select twenty-three grand jurors to serve in said cou…

Section 2G. The clerk of the court for Essex county shall, not less than twenty-eight days before the first Mondays of January and May, and the second Monday of September respectively, issue writs of venire facias for forty-five veniremen from whom the court shall select twenty-t…

Section 2H. The clerk of the court for Bristol county shall, not less than twenty-eight days before the first Mondays of January and July respectively, issue writs of venire facias for fifty veniremen from whom the court shall select twenty-three grand jurors to serve in said cou…

Section 3. Grand jurors shall be drawn, summoned and returned in the same manner as traverse jurors; and, if drawn at the same time with traverse jurors, the number of persons required whose names are first drawn shall be returned as grand jurors, and those whose names are afterw…

Section 30. If an intent to injure or defraud is an essential element of a crime, an intent to injure or defraud may be alleged generally, without naming the person, corporation or government intended to be injured or defrauded. Proof of an intent to injure or defraud any person …

Section 31. Different means or different intents by or with which a crime may be committed may be alleged in the same count in the alternative.

Section 32. An allegation that a crime was committed or that certain acts were done during a certain period of time next before the finding of the indictment shall be a sufficient allegation that the crime alleged was committed or that the acts alleged were done on divers days an…