What a Massachusetts District Attorney Can and Cannot Decide

A Massachusetts district attorney is the elected prosecutor for one of the Commonwealth’s eleven districts under G.L. c. 12, § 13. The district attorney decides whether and how the Commonwealth prosecutes a criminal case once that case is in court. That power is executive power under Article 30 of the Declaration of Rights. Article 30 forbids the judicial branch from exercising that power and forbids the executive from exercising judicial power.

Nine districts cover a single county. Several do not carry that county’s name. Middlesex County is the Northern District. Essex County is the Eastern District. Worcester County, excluding the town of Athol, is the Middle District. The Suffolk, Norfolk, Plymouth, Bristol, Berkshire, and Hampden districts each cover the county of the same name.

Two districts combine counties. The Northwestern District covers Franklin County, including the town of Athol, and Hampshire County. The Cape and Islands District covers Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket counties.

A clerk-magistrate or a judge issues the complaint that begins the case. A jury or a judge decides guilt. A judge imposes the sentence. This page takes each decision in a criminal case in turn and names who makes it: the judge, the clerk-magistrate, the grand jury, the jury, or the prosecutor.

The District Attorney’s Statutory and Constitutional Authority

Under G.L. c. 12, § 12, a district attorney is elected for a district and serves for four years. The term begins with the first Wednesday of January after the election and runs until a successor is qualified. District attorneys appear for the Commonwealth in criminal cases in the Superior Court under G.L. c. 12, § 27, and in the District Court and the Boston Municipal Court under G.L. c. 218, § 27A(g).

Article 30 states that the judicial department “shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them.” The Supreme Judicial Court applies that clause to prosecution directly. Prosecutorial discretion, meaning the decision whether to prosecute a particular defendant, is exclusively vested in the executive branch. Commonwealth v. Clerk-Magistrate of the West Roxbury Division of the District Court Department, 439 Mass. 352, 359 to 360 (2003), citing Commonwealth v. Taylor, 428 Mass. 623, 629 (1999).

How a Case Begins Without the District Attorney

In the District Court and the Boston Municipal Court, a criminal case begins when a clerk-magistrate, an assistant clerk, or a judge issues a complaint. The district attorney does not issue it. Under Mass. R. Crim. P. 3, a complainant with knowledge of the facts files an application for a criminal complaint. A clerk-magistrate, an assistant clerk, or a judge then authorizes the complaint on a finding that the information presented establishes probable cause to believe that the person named committed the offense charged.

The complainant is usually a police officer. A private citizen or the district attorney’s office may also apply.

A clerk-magistrate, an assistant clerk, or a judge makes the probable cause finding. G.L. c. 218, § 33 authorizes a clerk or assistant clerk to receive complaints, administer the oath to complainants, and issue warrants and summonses. The magistrate decides, on the application and the complainant’s testimony, whether probable cause exists to commence criminal proceedings. West Roxbury, 439 Mass. at 359.

The District Court Standards of Judicial Practice: The Complaint Procedure, revised October 1, 2008, sets out the recommended practice for that determination. The Standards do not enlarge or contract the magistrate’s statutory authority. Id. at 357.

G.L. c. 218, § 35A applies where the accused is not under arrest and the application alleges a misdemeanor. In that case the accused is entitled to notice and an opportunity to be heard in opposition to the issuance of process. The accused may be heard personally or by counsel. That hearing is the clerk-magistrate hearing. Since the 2004 amendment to § 35A, the same opportunity applies to a felony application received from a law enforcement officer who requests the hearing.

Under § 35A, the hearing is not required where there is an imminent threat of bodily injury, of the commission of a crime, or of flight from the Commonwealth. In deciding whether that threat exists, the magistrate must consider the accused’s criminal record and the records of the statewide domestic violence record keeping system. Notice is not required where a citation under G.L. c. 90C has already been issued. Process may issue only on probable cause to believe that the person named committed the offense charged.

A clerk-magistrate may deny a misdemeanor complaint even where the application establishes probable cause, if prosecution of the charge is unlikely. A clerk-magistrate’s denial is not a final judgment. The applicant may apply again, and a later clerk-magistrate may issue the complaint on the same facts. Cabrera v. Commonwealth, 496 Mass. 179 (2025), citing Trustees of Boston University v. Clerk-Magistrate of the Cambridge Division of the District Court Department, 495 Mass. 56, 63 and n.12 (2024).

The page on what happens at a clerk-magistrate hearing describes the hearing step by step, from the show cause notice to the clerk-magistrate’s ruling.

The Supreme Judicial Court drew the line between the clerk-magistrate’s duties and the district attorney’s power in West Roxbury. The clerk-magistrate’s authority is created and limited by statute, G.L. c. 218, §§ 33 and 35A.

Under § 33 the clerk-magistrate receives the application, administers the oath to the complainant, and decides whether probable cause exists to commence criminal proceedings. The magistrate makes that decision on the application and the complainant’s testimony, and has discretion in making it. 439 Mass. at 354, 359.

Section 33 gives the clerk-magistrate no authority to hold an adversary hearing at which the person accused may show why process should not issue. That authority comes only from § 35A.

When West Roxbury was decided, § 35A applied only to misdemeanor complaints. Since 2004 it also applies to a felony application received from a law enforcement officer who requests the hearing. The Standards of Judicial Practice cannot enlarge the authority the statutes confer. 439 Mass. at 357 to 359.

The decision whether to prosecute belongs to the district attorney. The magistrate may not block it. In West Roxbury the clerk-magistrate refused to act on two felony applications, one filed by the Commonwealth and one by a police detective, until show cause hearings were held. The Supreme Judicial Court held that the clerk-magistrate had no authority to do so.

Prosecutorial discretion is exclusively vested in the executive branch. A clerk-magistrate who declines to act on a felony application until a show cause hearing is held “improperly interferes with the prosecutorial discretion of the executive branch.” 439 Mass. at 359 to 360.

A private citizen has no right to the issuance of a complaint and no right to challenge the denial of one. The citizen may ask the district attorney or the Attorney General to pursue the matter.

Where either decides to prosecute a legally valid complaint, a clerk-magistrate may not bar the prosecution by delaying action on the application. 439 Mass. at 360 n.6, citing Victory Distributors, Inc. v. Ayer Division of the District Court Department, 435 Mass. 136, 141 to 143 (2001), and quoting Commonwealth v. Clerk of the Boston Division of the Juvenile Court Department, 432 Mass. 693, 700 (2000).

Once a clerk-magistrate finds probable cause, the complaint issues. A judge does not rehear that finding in a second show cause hearing. The defendant’s remedy is a motion to dismiss the complaint, which a judge decides. The motion may argue that the application did not present sufficient evidence of probable cause or that the integrity of the proceeding was violated. It may raise any other challenge to the validity of the complaint. Commonwealth v. DiBennadetto, 436 Mass. 310, 313 to 314 (2002).

The arrest and arraignment page covers how a case begins by arrest or by summons and what happens at the first court date.

In the Superior Court the case begins with an indictment, which twelve or more grand jurors return after assistant district attorneys present the evidence under Mass. R. Crim. P. 5.

The Charging Power Once the Case Is in Court

The district attorney’s office first sees most cases in the District Court or the Boston Municipal Court at arraignment. In most District Court and Boston Municipal Court cases the police applied for the complaint and the clerk-magistrate issued it. No assistant district attorney was involved until the first court date. In the Superior Court, assistant district attorneys have nearly always presented the case to a grand jury before the defendant is arraigned on the indictment. By arraignment they are very familiar with the case.

From arraignment in the District Court, the Boston Municipal Court, or the Superior Court, the district attorney holds the executive charging power.

The district attorney may proceed on the complaint or the indictment as issued. The district attorney may move to amend it, to reduce a count, or to dismiss a count. A judge acts on that motion. The district attorney may enter a nolle prosequi under Mass. R. Crim. P. 16(a).

A nolle prosequi is the prosecutor’s written declaration that the Commonwealth will not further prosecute a charge. The prosecuting attorney signs it and attaches a written statement of reasons. The rule permits the entry at any time before the pronouncement of sentence, the imposition of probation, or the entry of an order of continuance without a finding. Under Rule 16(b), a nolle prosequi entered after jeopardy attaches without the defendant’s consent has the effect of an acquittal.

The district attorney may present the case to a grand jury under Mass. R. Crim. P. 5. Attorneys for the Commonwealth present the evidence. An indictment may be found only on the concurrence of twelve or more grand jurors. The grand jury returns the indictment to a judge in open court. On indictment the case moves to the Superior Court, where the defendant faces the state prison sentence that a District Court judge cannot impose.

Mass. R. Crim. P. 3 governs the choice of forum for the most serious charges. A defendant charged with an offense punishable by imprisonment in the state prison has the right to be proceeded against by indictment. That right is subject to the District Court’s concurrent jurisdiction over certain felonies and to the defendant’s written waiver of indictment.

The Commonwealth argues bail and may move for pretrial detention under G.L. c. 276, § 58A. The district attorney makes the plea offer and the sentencing recommendation. Each of those decisions has its own section below, because each one is bounded by a decision that belongs to someone else.

What the District Attorney Cannot Do With the Charge

The district attorney cannot issue a complaint and cannot find probable cause. Those acts belong to the clerk-magistrate, the assistant clerk, or the judge under G.L. c. 218, §§ 33 and 35A and Mass. R. Crim. P. 3. The district attorney cannot return an indictment. Twelve or more grand jurors do that under Mass. R. Crim. P. 5.

The district attorney cannot stop a judge from dismissing a charge for a legal reason. A judge may dismiss a complaint that the clerk-magistrate issued without probable cause.

Where the accused was not under arrest and was denied the hearing G.L. c. 218, § 35A required, a judge may dismiss the complaint. The right to that hearing is statutory, not constitutional, and its denial carries no lasting prejudice, because the complaint process can begin again and the accused can then be heard. Commonwealth v. Lyons, 397 Mass. 644, 647 to 648 (1986); Cabrera v. Commonwealth, 496 Mass. 179 (2025).

A judge may dismiss where a materially misleading presentation or a procedural violation affected the integrity of the complaint proceeding.

Where a police officer did not give a motor vehicle citation at the time and place of the violation and no exception in G.L. c. 90C, § 2 applies, the failure is a defense to the charge. Under Mass. R. Crim. P. 36(b), the Commonwealth must bring the defendant to trial within twelve months of the return day, after the periods the rule excludes are subtracted. A judge must dismiss with prejudice where it did not.

A judge cannot dismiss a charge for a discretionary reason. The reasons available differ between the District Court and the Superior Court, so the two courts are taken separately below.

Dismissal in the District Court and the Boston Municipal Court

A judge decides the motion to dismiss a complaint for want of probable cause on the application and the materials before the magistrate, without a new evidentiary hearing. DiBennadetto, 436 Mass. at 313 to 314.

The page on how a criminal case is dismissed in the District Court and the Boston Municipal Court covers the motion practice for each of the reasons above, and the page on dismissal and not guilty outcomes covers what each leaves on the record. Attorney Joe Serpa describes how he researches, writes, and argues a motion to dismiss in a separate post.

A judge may not dismiss a legally valid complaint over the Commonwealth’s objection without a legal basis. A judge who does so “usurps the decision-making authority constitutionally allocated to the executive branch.” Commonwealth v. Cheney, 440 Mass. 568, 574 (2003), quoting Commonwealth v. Gordon, 410 Mass. 498, 501 (1991). Once the Commonwealth has begun a prosecution, “the decision to nol pros a criminal case is within the discretion of the executive branch of government, free from judicial intervention.” Cheney, 440 Mass. at 574, quoting Gordon, 410 Mass. at 500.

The Legislature has placed one disposition in the District Court, the Boston Municipal Court, and the Juvenile Court that the district attorney cannot veto. Under G.L. c. 278, § 18, a defendant and the Commonwealth may fail to agree on a recommended disposition. The defendant may then tender a plea of guilty or an admission to sufficient facts together with a request for a specific disposition.

That request may include a continuance without a finding to a date certain, with dismissal on compliance with conditions, unless a statute prohibits that disposition for the offense. The judge may accept the request over the Commonwealth’s objection. The Supreme Judicial Court upheld § 18 against a separation of powers challenge in Commonwealth v. Pyles, 423 Mass. 717 (1996), as the court explained in Cheney, 440 Mass. at 570 to 571.

Dismissal in the Superior Court

A judge may dismiss an indictment where the grand jury heard insufficient evidence to establish probable cause. Cheney, 440 Mass. at 575 n.12, citing Commonwealth v. McCarthy, 385 Mass. 160, 163 (1982).

A judge may not dismiss a legally adequate indictment over the Commonwealth’s objection before a verdict, finding, or plea because dismissal would serve the interests of public justice. In Cheney a Superior Court judge dismissed legally adequate indictments for that reason. The Supreme Judicial Court held that Article 30 does not permit the dismissal. 440 Mass. at 568, 574 to 575.

Section 18 does not apply in the Superior Court. A judge who has accepted a guilty plea may nonetheless continue the indictment without a finding on conditions and dismiss it on compliance. The judge may do so over the Commonwealth’s objection where no statute prohibits that disposition. That disposition is not a nolle prosequi and does not infringe the executive power. Commonwealth v. Powell, 453 Mass. 320, 323 to 327 (2009). The Commonwealth may appeal the disposition when it is imposed. Id. at 327.

In the District Court, the Boston Municipal Court, and the Superior Court alike, a judge cannot reduce the charge on a plea without the Commonwealth’s agreement. A judge who accepts a plea to a lesser offense than the one charged, over the Commonwealth’s objection, exercises a charging power that Article 30 reserves to the prosecutor. Commonwealth v. Pelletier, 449 Mass. 392, 398 to 399 (2007); Gordon, 410 Mass. at 498.

Release: Bail and Pretrial Detention

Under G.L. c. 276, § 58, a judge, a clerk or assistant clerk of the District Court, a bail commissioner, or a master in chancery decides whether a person is released before trial. At arraignment the judge decides. Before arraignment, when the police hold a person at the station after an arrest, a bail commissioner or a clerk decides. At arraignment the assistant district attorney states the Commonwealth’s position on bail. Defense counsel argues for release. The judge rules.

The judge admits the person to bail on personal recognizance without surety unless release on personal recognizance will not reasonably assure the person’s appearance before the court. The judge makes that determination in the exercise of discretion. Before arraignment the bail commissioner or the clerk applies the same standard at the police station.

Under § 58 the judge considers the nature and circumstances of the offense, the potential penalty, family ties, financial resources, employment, record of convictions, and any prior failure to appear. The judge also considers whether the person is on bail, probation, parole, or release pending sentence or appeal for another matter.

Where the judge sets bail, § 58 requires an amount no higher than what would reasonably assure appearance after taking the person’s financial resources into account. Some amounts require findings. Where the amount set is likely to result in long-term pretrial detention because the person cannot pay it, the judge must make written or recorded findings. Those findings must explain why no affordable amount and no nonfinancial conditions would assure appearance.

In the Superior Court, a justice of the Superior Court, the clerk of courts, or a bail commissioner appointed by the Superior Court admits a person to bail under G.L. c. 276, § 57. A person whom a District Court judge declines to release on personal recognizance may petition the Superior Court for review of the order. The Superior Court hears that petition, except in unusual circumstances, on the same day it is filed. The bail page covers those decisions in full.

Pretrial detention based on dangerousness is a separate decision with a separate procedure. Under G.L. c. 276, § 58A, the Commonwealth may move, based on dangerousness, for an order of pretrial detention or release on conditions. The assistant district attorney files that motion.

The motion is available only for the offenses the statute enumerates. Those include any felony that has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against another person. They include any felony that by its nature involves a substantial risk that physical force may result.

On that motion the judge holds a hearing. The person has the right to counsel, to testify, to present witnesses, to cross-examine the witnesses who appear, and to present information. The judge orders detention only on a finding, by clear and convincing evidence, that no conditions of release will reasonably assure the safety of any other person or the community. The order must include written findings of fact and a written statement of reasons.

Section 58A also limits how long the detention lasts. Absent good cause, a person so detained may not be held longer than 120 days by the District Court or 180 days by the Superior Court. Periods of delay defined in Mass. R. Crim. P. 36(b)(2) are excluded from that count. The Commonwealth chooses whether to file the motion. The judge decides it.

The Plea Offer and the Sentencing Recommendation

The district attorney makes the plea offer. Under Mass. R. Crim. P. 12, the prosecutor may agree to amend an indictment or complaint, to dismiss, reduce, or partially dismiss charges, not to seek an indictment, or not to bring other charges. The parties may agree on a specific disposition, including the length of any term of probation, or on a joint recommendation.

An offer is not final or binding on either party until a judge accepts the plea and enters a final disposition. Under the contract principles the Supreme Judicial Court applies to plea bargaining, a prosecutor may revoke a plea offer at any time before the defendant accepts it.

Where the defendant has not relied on the offer to their detriment, the remedy is a trial. The defendant “is in no worse position than he would have been if the prosecutor had made no plea bargain offer at all.” Commonwealth v. Johnson, 447 Mass. 1018, 1020 to 1021 (2006), quoting Commonwealth v. Smith, 384 Mass. 519, 522 (1981). A promise on which the defendant has reasonably relied to their detriment is enforced. Smith, 384 Mass. at 522.

The judge decides whether to accept the plea. Under Rule 12(c), the judge conducts a colloquy and informs the defendant of the maximum possible sentence and of the rights waived. The prosecutor states the factual basis of the charge. The judge accepts the plea only on a finding that it is made voluntarily and with an understanding of the nature of the charge and its consequences. The judge must also find that an adequate factual basis exists.

Under G.L. c. 278, § 29D, the judge must also advise the defendant that the plea may have the consequences of deportation, exclusion from admission to the United States, or denial of naturalization. Defense counsel’s separate duty to advise a noncitizen client of the immigration consequences of a plea is covered on its own page.

Rule 12 treats the District Court and the Superior Court differently when the parties have no binding plea agreement. In the District Court, the Boston Municipal Court, and the Juvenile Court, the defendant may tender a plea or an admission with a request for a specific disposition under G.L. c. 278, § 18.

Under Rule 12(c)(4)(A), the District Court judge must then inform the defendant that the disposition imposed will not exceed the terms of the defendant’s request without first giving the defendant the right to withdraw the plea.

Under Rule 12(c)(6)(B), a District Court judge who decides to impose a sentence above the defendant’s request must advise the defendant of that intent on the record and afford the defendant the opportunity to withdraw the plea or admission.

That defendant-capped plea exists only in the District Court, the Boston Municipal Court, and the Juvenile Court.

In the Superior Court there is no defendant-capped plea. A Superior Court judge gives both parties the opportunity to recommend a disposition. Under Rule 12(c)(4)(A), a Superior Court judge must inform the defendant that the disposition imposed will not exceed the terms of the prosecutor’s recommendation without first giving the defendant the right to withdraw the plea.

Under Rule 12(c)(6)(B), a Superior Court judge who decides to impose a sentence above the prosecutor’s request must advise the defendant of that intent on the record and afford the defendant the opportunity to withdraw the plea. In the Superior Court the prosecutor’s recommendation, not the defendant’s request, sets the ceiling that triggers the right to withdraw.

Where the parties have agreed on a recommended disposition, in the District Court or the Superior Court, the judge must inform the defendant that the disposition imposed will not exceed the terms of the agreement without first giving the defendant the right to withdraw the plea. Rule 12(c)(4)(B).

A plea agreement binds the judge to its terms only where it contains both a specific disposition and a charge concession. Rule 12(b)(5)(A). The judge must accept or reject that agreement before accepting the plea. Where the judge rejects it, the judge must allow either party to withdraw from the agreement and must allow the defendant to withdraw the plea. Rule 12(d)(4).

The district attorney makes the sentencing recommendation. The judge imposes the sentence. A sentencing recommendation does not bind the judge. When the judge intends to exceed the applicable ceiling, the defendant’s protection is the right to withdraw the plea described above.

The Finding of Guilt and the Sentence

A jury decides guilt or innocence and issues a verdict at trial. In a jury-waived trial, a judge decides guilt or innocence and issues a verdict. On a plea, the judge makes the finding after the colloquy described above, or, in the District Court, the Boston Municipal Court, or the Juvenile Court, continues the case without a finding under G.L. c. 278, § 18. The district attorney decides none of that.

The Commonwealth’s burden at trial is proof of every element beyond a reasonable doubt. The judge, not the prosecutor, decides whether the evidence is legally sufficient to go to the jury.

The judge imposes the sentence. The statute that defines the offense fixes the maximum and, where the Legislature has set one, the minimum. A state prison sentence can be imposed only in the Superior Court. The sentences available in the District Court and the Boston Municipal Court are described on their own page. Where the Legislature has fixed a mandatory minimum term, that statute confines the judge’s discretion. The prosecutor’s recommendation does not. The prosecutor’s charging decision determines which statute applies.

Under Mass. R. Crim. P. 28, a judgment of conviction follows a verdict or finding of guilty, entered on the docket in open court. The probation department reports on the defendant’s record before sentencing. The judge affords the defendant and counsel an opportunity to speak and to present information in mitigation of punishment before pronouncing sentence. The motions for correcting a sentence after it is imposed are on their own page.

The Duties That Bind the District Attorney

The district attorney’s authority comes with duties that no office policy can waive. Under Mass. R. Crim. P. 14(a)(1)(A), the prosecution must disclose the categories the rule lists to the defense automatically, without a request, at or before the pretrial conference. The list includes “any facts of an exculpatory nature.”

The duty covers material in the possession, custody, or control of the prosecutor and of persons under the prosecutor’s direction and control. It also covers material held by persons who participated in investigating or evaluating the case and who regularly report to the prosecutor’s office or did so in the case.

The list also includes the defendant’s statements, grand jury minutes, the names and contact information of witnesses, and expert identities and reports. It includes police reports, photographs and recordings, scientific test results, and identification procedures. Rule 14(d) makes the duty a continuing one: material later obtained must be disclosed promptly in the same manner.

The same duty is constitutional under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963). The prosecution’s withholding of evidence favorable to an accused violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment. The good faith or bad faith of the prosecution does not matter.

Under Mass. R. Prof. C. 3.8, a prosecutor must refrain from prosecuting a charge where the prosecutor lacks a good faith belief that probable cause to support it exists. The prosecutor must make timely disclosure to the defense of all evidence or information known to the prosecutor that tends to negate the guilt of the accused or mitigate the offense.

A prosecutor may not avoid the pursuit of evidence because it may damage the prosecution’s case or aid the accused. The duty continues after conviction. A prosecutor who knows of new, credible, and material evidence creating a reasonable likelihood that the defendant did not commit the offense must disclose it.

Who Makes Each Decision

A police officer, a private citizen, or the district attorney files the application for a criminal complaint. A clerk-magistrate, an assistant clerk, or a judge authorizes the complaint on a finding of probable cause under Mass. R. Crim. P. 3 and G.L. c. 218, § 33. The clerk-magistrate holds the show cause hearing under G.L. c. 218, § 35A and may deny a misdemeanor complaint under Cabrera where prosecution is unlikely. A judge decides the motion to dismiss the complaint for want of probable cause under DiBennadetto.

The district attorney decides whether to proceed, whether to seek an indictment, whether to amend or reduce a count, and whether to enter a nolle prosequi under Mass. R. Crim. P. 16. Article 30 keeps the judge out of those decisions under Cheney. Twelve or more grand jurors return the indictment under Mass. R. Crim. P. 5. A judge decides the motion to dismiss an indictment for insufficient grand jury evidence under McCarthy.

In the District Court and the Boston Municipal Court the district attorney first sees most cases at arraignment. In the Superior Court assistant district attorneys have nearly always presented the case to the grand jury before arraignment.

In the District Court and the Boston Municipal Court the judge decides admission to bail on personal recognizance, the amount of bail, and the conditions of release at arraignment under G.L. c. 276, § 58. Before arraignment a clerk or a bail commissioner decides bail at the police station under the same section. In the Superior Court, a justice of the Superior Court, the clerk of courts, or a commissioner appointed by the Superior Court admits a person to bail under G.L. c. 276, § 57.

The Commonwealth files the motion for pretrial detention under G.L. c. 276, § 58A. A judge decides it after a hearing, on clear and convincing evidence.

The district attorney makes the plea offer. Under Johnson the district attorney may withdraw it before the defendant accepts it. The judge decides whether to accept the plea, conducts the colloquy, and finds the factual basis under Mass. R. Crim. P. 12. In the District Court, the Boston Municipal Court, and the Juvenile Court, the defendant’s request caps the disposition under G.L. c. 278, § 18 and Rule 12(c)(4)(A). In the Superior Court the prosecutor’s recommendation is the cap.

The judge, not the district attorney, decides whether to continue a case without a finding over the Commonwealth’s objection. The authority is G.L. c. 278, § 18 in the District Court, the Boston Municipal Court, and the Juvenile Court, and Powell in the Superior Court after a guilty plea. A judge may not reduce a charge on a plea without the Commonwealth’s agreement under Pelletier.

A jury decides guilt or innocence and issues a verdict at trial. In a jury-waived trial, a judge decides guilt or innocence and issues a verdict. On a plea the judge finds guilt after the colloquy.

The district attorney makes the sentencing recommendation. The judge imposes the sentence within the statute under Mass. R. Crim. P. 28. Only a Superior Court judge can impose a state prison sentence. The district attorney must disclose exculpatory facts under Mass. R. Crim. P. 14, Brady, and Mass. R. Prof. C. 3.8, whether or not the defense asks. The stages of a Massachusetts criminal case, from the clerk-magistrate hearing to trial and appeal, are set out on the criminal process hub.

Where These Decisions Are Made

Attorney Joe Serpa practices in the courts of Suffolk, Norfolk, Middlesex, Essex, Worcester, and Bristol counties. In Suffolk County the District Court decisions described above are made in the eight divisions of the Boston Municipal Court and in the Chelsea District Court. The Superior Court decisions are made in the Suffolk Superior Court.

In Norfolk County the District Court decisions are made in the Quincy, Dedham, Stoughton, Wrentham, and Brookline District Courts. The Superior Court decisions are made in the Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham.

In Middlesex County the District Court decisions are made in the Cambridge, Somerville, Malden, Woburn, Waltham, Newton, Natick, Framingham, Marlborough, Concord, Ayer, and Lowell District Courts. The Superior Court decisions are made in the Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn and Lowell.

In Essex County the District Court decisions are made in the Lynn, Salem, Peabody, Lawrence, Haverhill, Newburyport, Gloucester, and Ipswich District Courts. The Superior Court decisions are made in the Essex Superior Court.

In Worcester County the District Court decisions are made in the Worcester, Westborough, Milford, Clinton, Leominster, Fitchburg, Gardner, Uxbridge, East Brookfield, and Dudley District Courts. The Superior Court decisions are made in the Worcester Superior Court.

In Bristol County the District Court decisions are made in the Attleboro, Taunton, Fall River, and New Bedford District Courts. The Superior Court decisions are made in the Bristol Superior Court.

The district attorney for each of those counties is chosen at the polls. The September 2026 district attorney primary results are discussed in a separate post.

Serpa Law Office can be reached at 617.936.0201.