Massachusetts § 16A Exclusion of public from trial for sex offenses involving minors under age of eighteen

Massachusetts Statutes

§ 16A — Exclusion of public from trial for sex offenses involving minors under age of eighteen

Massachusetts § 16A

Part IVCRIMES, PUNISHMENTS AND PROCEEDINGS IN CRIMINAL CASES

Title IIPROCEEDINGS IN CRIMINAL CASES

Ch. 278TRIALS AND PROCEEDINGS BEFORE JUDGMENT

This text of Massachusetts § 16A (Exclusion of public from trial for sex offenses involving minors under age of eighteen) 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. 278, § 16A (2026).

Text

Section 16A. At the trial of a complaint or indictment for rape, incest, carnal abuse or other crime involving sex, where a minor under eighteen years of age is the person upon, with or against whom the crime is alleged to have been committed, or at the trial of a complaint or indictment for getting a woman with child out of wedlock, or for the non-support of a child born out of wedlock, the presiding justice shall exclude the general public from the court room, admitting only such persons as may have a direct interest in the case.

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Section 16A. At the trial of a complaint or indictment for rape, incest, carnal abuse or other crime involving sex, where a minor under eighteen years of age is the person upon, with or against whom the crime is alleged to have been committed, or at the trial of a complaint or indictment for getting a woman with child out of wedlock, or for the non-support of a child born out of wedlock, the presiding justice shall exclude the general public from the court room, admitting only such persons as may have a direct interest in the case.