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115 Mass. 151

Commonwealth v. Mahoney

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1874-06-22

Complaint on the St. of 1869, a. 415, §§ 81, 86, to the Municipal Court of the city of Boston averring that the defendant, on January 20,1874, kept intoxicating liquors with intent to sell the same. The defendant pleaded guilty in the Municipal Court and was sentenced, but appealed. In the Superior Court the district attorney moved for sentence; the defendant objected and claimed a trial by jury. The objection was overruled by Wilkinson, J., and the defendant excepted.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“in thé indictment or complaint, and a waiver of his right of trial- by jury thereon, and, unless withdrawn by special leave of court, or a motion is interposed in arrest of judgment for legal defects apparent on the record, leaves nothing to be done but to pass”

quoted by 1 later decision, including People v. Richmond

Relies on Commonwealth v. Winton

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1874-06-22

How this case has been cited

Cited by 19 later decisions — most recently June 1971

19 state decisions — followed in 10 states

6018741880189019001910192019301940195019601970decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Gray, C. J.

¶1A defendant in a criminal cáse, who has once pleaded to the charge against him, has no right to withdraw his plea, but is confined to the issues of law or fact thereby raised or left open, unless the court in which the case is pending sees fit ta exercise the discretion of allowing him to withdraw it and plead anew. If he appeals from a judgment against him in the court in which his plea is first made, the appeal indeed vacates the judgment, but it does not multiply his grounds of defence or enlarge the issue once joined between the Commonwealth and himself. The same defences are open to him in the appellate court as in the court below, and no other. Commonwealth v. Blake, 12 Allen, 188. If he pleads guilty upon his first arraignment, and his plea is received by the court and recorded, it is an admission of all facts well charged in the indictment or complaint, and a waiver of his right of trial by jury thereon, and, unless withdrawn by special leave of court, or a motion is interposed in arrest of judgment for legal defects apparent on the record, leaves nothing to be done but to pass sentence. Gen. Sts. c. 158, § 5. Commonwealth v. Winton, 108 Mass. 485.

¶2Exceptions overruled.

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