Watts, et al. v. Commonwealth (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-076-14)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us SJC‑11613 RONALD WATTS & another[1] vs. COMMONWEALTH. Suffolk. March 6, 2014. ‑ May 6, 2014. Present: Ireland, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Gants, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ. Supreme Judicial Court, Superintendence of inferior courts. Retroactivity of Judicial Holding. Practice, Criminal, Retroactivity of judicial holding. Statute, Retroactive application, Construction. Juvenile Court, Jurisdiction. Jurisdiction, Juvenile Court. Civil action commenced in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk on November 18, 2013. The case was reported by Lenk, J. Barbara Kaban, Committee for Public Counsel Services (Benjamin H. Keehn, Committee for Public Counsel Services, with her) for the petitioners. Robert J. Bender & Varsha Kukafka, Assistant District Attorneys (Nathanael Burris, Assistant District Attorney, with them) for the Commonwealth. John E. Roberts, of New York, Scott Harshbarger, Michael R. Hackett, & Jamie Crystal-Lowry, for Citizens for Juvenile Justice & others, amici curiae, submitted a brief. Joseph D. Early, Jr., District Attorney for the Worcester District, & Jane A. Sullivan, Assistant District Attorney, for the District Attorney for the Worcester District, amicus curiae, submitted a brief. IRELAND, C.J. This case requires us to decide whether St. 2013, c. 84 (act), which extended the Juvenile Court’s jurisdiction to persons who are seventeen years of age at the time of committing an offense, applies retroactively to persons who were seventeen years of age when they committed an offense and against whom criminal proceedings had begun and were pending on September 18, 2013, the effective date of the act. We conclude that the act is not retroactive to criminal cases begun and pending before September 18, 2013, against persons who were seventeen years of age at the time of the alleged offense. 1. Background. On March 4, 2013, a complaint issued in the Quincy Division of the District Court Department charging Ronald Watts with unarmed robbery, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, assault and battery, and malicious destruction of property. At the time of the alleged offenses, Watts was seventeen years of age. On August 13, 2013, a complaint issued in the Framingham Division of the District Court Department charging Kevin Aguirre with attempt to commit a crime, malicious destruction of property, disorderly conduct, and accessory before the fact. At the time of the alleged offenses, Aguirre was seventeen years of age. On September 18, […]