In Massachusetts defendants accused of committing certain serious crimes (“predicate offenses”) can be deemed dangerous and held in jail for up to 120 days without the right to bail. See G.L. c. 276, § 58A.
(For a list of predicate offense, click here.)
If the defendant did not allegedly commit one of the enumerated crimes listed in the statute, he may still be detained under 58A if at least one of the charges against him is a felony that has as an element “the use, attempted use or threatened use of 2 physical force against the person of another.”
This is referred to as the “force clause.” See G. L. c. 276, § 58A (1).
Today the Supreme Judicial Court considered whether armed robbery constitutes a predicate offense under the force clause.
The question in this case is whether armed robbery, G. L. c. 265, § 17 (§ 17), qualifies as a predicate offense under § 58A’s force clause. This requires an application of our categorical approach, where we look at the definition of the crime, not the particular facts presented, to determine the type of conduct criminalized by the statute.
According to the SJC,
We conclude that, because armed robbery may be committed through the application of minimal physical force (such as a purse snatching), and without the display or otherwise use of a weapon, armed robbery is not a predicate offense under the force clause of § 58A.
The full text of the opinion is attached below.