Massachusetts § 1 Murder defined

Massachusetts Statutes

§ 1 — Murder defined

Massachusetts § 1

Part IVCRIMES, PUNISHMENTS AND PROCEEDINGS IN CRIMINAL CASES

Title ICRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS

Ch. 265CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON

This text of Massachusetts § 1 (Murder defined) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 265, § 1 (2026).

Text

Section 1. Murder committed with deliberately premeditated malice aforethought, or with extreme atrocity or cruelty, or in the commission or attempted commission of a crime punishable with death or imprisonment for life, is murder in the first degree. Murder which does not appear to be in the first degree is murder in the second degree. Petit treason shall be prosecuted and punished as murder. The degree of murder shall be found by the jury.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Section 1. Murder committed with deliberately premeditated malice aforethought, or with extreme atrocity or cruelty, or in the commission or attempted commission of a crime punishable with death or imprisonment for life, is murder in the first degree. Murder which does not appear to be in the first degree is murder in the second degree. Petit treason shall be prosecuted and punished as murder. The degree of murder shall be found by the jury.