Criminal defendants are innocent until proven guilty, right?
Before you answer, read the Massachusetts’ law prohibiting untraceable firearms.
Here in Massachusetts possessing a firearm with a defaced serial number is prima facie evidence of criminal guilt under G.L. c. 269, Section 11C.
The Commonwealth is not required to prove that you in fact defaced the gun’s serial number or even that you had knowledge of the number’s defacement.
The pertinent section of that statute reads as follows:
Possession or control of a firearm that is untraceable shall be prima facie evidence that the person having such possession or control is guilty of a violation of this section.
(Prima facie evidence, according to Black’s Law Dictionary, is “evidence that will establish a fact or sustain a judgment unless contradictory evidence is produced.”)
The statute shifts the burden of proof onto the criminal defendant–something almost unheard of in criminal law.
According to the statute, “such prima facie evidence may be rebutted by evidence that such person had no knowledge that the firearm was untraceable, or by evidence that they had no guilty knowledge thereof.”
If the defendant fails to adequately plead his case, the penalty is severe. Any conviction under the draconian statute “shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than 12 months and not more than 2 1/2 years.” (Emphasis added.)