Commonwealth v. CONNOR C., A JUVENILE

• Decision Date: 12 September 2000
• Citation: 738 NE 2d 731,432 Mass. 635
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. CONNOR C., a juvenile.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

432 Mass. 635

738 NE 2d 731

COMMONWEALTH v. CONNOR C., a juvenile.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Middlesex.

September 12, 2000.

November 17, 2000.

Present: MARSHALL, C.J., ABRAMS, GREANEY, IRELAND, SPINA, COWIN, & SOSMAN, JJ.

Sean Gordon, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.

Suellen E. Seabury for the juvenile.

MARSHALL, C.J.

The defendant was indicted as a "youthful offender," G. L. c. 119, § 54, for possession of a firearm without a license, subsequent offense, in violation of G. L. c. 269, § 10 (d). A judge in the District Court dismissed the youthful offender indictment, concluding that the defendant's earlier "adjudication of delinquency" for possession of a firearm without a license was not a "conviction," as that term is used in G. L. c. 269, § 10 (d).¹ We granted the Commonwealth's application for direct appellate review and now vacate the dismissal of the indictment and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I

The following facts are drawn from the District Court judge's findings, supplemented where necessary by unchallenged facts from the record. In January, 1999, Officer James Fay of the Lowell police department observed a Toyota Camry automobile, later found to be stolen, speeding north on Mount Vernon Street in Lowell. The automobile spun out of control, whereupon the officer saw two males leave the automobile and run west on Lombard Street. One was wearing a black mask and carrying a black book bag.

Two other officers with the Lowell police department tracked the two males through backyards and across several streets by following their footsteps in the snow. They eventually apprehended the defendant and another person, later identified by Officer Fay as the two individuals who had run from the Toyota Camry. A .22 caliber semiautomatic handgun with a loaded clip and defaced serial numbers was recovered from the black book bag apparently dropped while the two males were fleeing; the bag bore the defendant's name.

In March, 1999, a grand jury returned youthful offender indictments, G. L. c. 119, § 54, charging the defendant with five offenses, including the one at issue here, possession of a firearm without a license, subsequent offense, G. L. c. 269, § 10 (d) (Count B).² The basis for the subsequent offense indictment was that previously, in November, 1996, the defendant had been adjudicated delinquent for violating G. L. c. 269, § 10 (a), possession of a firearm without a license, and had been committed to the Department of Youth Services (DYS). On the Commonwealth's motion, a judge in the Superior Court ordered that the youthful offender indictments against the defendant be sent to the juvenile session of the Lowell District Court, where the defendant moved to dismiss Count B. After a hearing, a judge in the District Court allowed the motion on the ground that the defendant, notwithstanding his prior adjudication of delinquency for unlawful possession of a firearm, had not been "convicted" of a firearm offense for purposes of G. L. c. 269, § 10 (d).

II

In 1996, the Legislature enacted substantial changes to the law governing delinquent children, addressed primarily to those children who commit violent or gun-related unlawful acts. See generally St. 1996, c. 200. See also R.L. Ireland, Juvenile Law § 3, at 13-14 (Supp. 1998). We describe the provisions of the new law relevant to this appeal. As amended through St. 1996, c. 200, § 2, G. L. c. 119, § 54, now provides several mechanisms by which the Commonwealth may initiate proceedings against a child who is charged with a violation of a law of the Commonwealth. It may proceed by complaint in a Juvenile Court; it may proceed by complaint in a juvenile session of a District Court; or it may proceed by indictment in a District or Juvenile Court if the child qualifies as a "youthful offender," as defined in the 1996 legislation.³ G. L. c. 119, §§ 52, 54. We are concerned in this case with the category of "youthful offenders" who violate the law concerning firearms, G. L. c. 269, § 10.

As appearing in St. 1996, c. 200, § 5, the third paragraph of G. L. c. 119, § 58, now provides that, if a child is adjudicated a youthful offender on an indictment, a judge shall impose, of three possible dispositional options, the one that best protects the "present and long-term public safety." The most severe option grants a judge authority to punish the child by "a sentence provided by law," G. L. c. 119, § 58 (a), in other words the punishment the child would receive were he an adult.⁴ Alternatively, the judge may order a "combination sentence," which requires the commitment of the child to the custody of the DYS until he reaches the age of twenty-one years, and an adult sentence to a house of correction or to the State prison as provided by law, subject to required suspension. Id. Finally, a judge may commit the child to DYS until he reaches the age of twenty-one years, the least severe option.⁵ Id.

It is not disputed that the Commonwealth could seek an indictment of this defendant as a "youthful offender": he was sixteen years old at the time of the alleged firearm offense, the alleged offense was punishable by imprisonment in a State prison,⁶ and he allegedly committed a firearm offense in violation of G. L. c. 269, § 10 (a). See note 3, supra. Two statutory issues are in dispute. First, may the defendant be indicted as a youthful offender for violating G. L. c. 269, § 10 (d), the repeat offender provision of G. L. c. 269, § 10? That question turns on whether the defendant's 1996 "adjudication of delinquency" for violation of G. L. c. 269, § 10 (a), satisfies the requirement of § 10 (d), that a person previously be "convicted" of a firearm offense. The second issue, closely tied to the first, concerns the proper interpretation of the new sentencing provisions of G. L. c. 119, § 58. The crux of that question is whether the 1996 dispositional provisions of § 58, seventh and eighth pars.,⁷ apply only to children "adjudicated delinquent on a complaint" or apply also to "youthful offenders."

III

A

The 1996 revisions of G. L. c. 119 are silent on whether the Legislature intended the term "conviction," as used in G. L. c. 269, § 10 (d), to apply to a child previously adjudicated delinquent, who is indicted as a youthful offender for a "subsequent" or "like" firearm offense. The defendant argues that treating a prior delinquency "adjudication" as a "conviction" so that a child may be prosecuted and sentenced to prison pursuant to G. L. c. 269, § 10 (d), would circumvent nearly one century of law giving effect to the Legislature's determination to decriminalize juvenile offenses. The Commonwealth does not challenge that the primary public policy of this Commonwealth remains one of rehabilitation and redemption of children who violate our laws. See G. L. c. 119, § 53. Rather, it rests its argument on a more narrow statutory analysis that construing the term "convicted" to include a delinquency "adjudication," harmonizes G. L. c. 269, § 10 (d), with G. L. c. 119, § 8, in a manner consistent with the Legislature's intent to protect the public from, and deal more severely with, children who violate our firearms laws.

We again embrace the maxim that a statute must be interpreted "according to the intent of the Legislature ascertained from all its words construed by the ordinary and approved usage of the language, considered in connection with the cause of its enactment, the mischief or imperfection to be remedied and the main object to be accomplished, to the end that the purpose of its framers may be effectuated." Champagne v. Champagne, 429 Mass. 324, 326 (1999), quoting O'Brien v. Director of the Div. of Employment Sec., 393 Mass. 482, 487-488 (1994). Statutes concerning a common topic should, of course, be read as a whole to produce an internal consistency and to effectuate the presumed intention of the Legislature. See Dowling v. Registrar of Motor Vehicles, 425 Mass. 523, 525 (1997); Charles C. v. Commonwealth, 415 Mass. 58, 64 (1993). To this end where, by amending an existing statute, the Legislature changes some but not all of the provisions of an earlier statute, the later enacted provisions must be read together with the earlier provisions left unchanged as if they originally had been enacted as one. See 1A N.J. Singer, Sutherland Statutory Construction §§ 22.32-22. 35, at 282-300 (5th ed. 1992). We begin our analysis by comparing the 1996 amendments to G. L. c. 119, §§ 52-63, with the earlier enactments of the statute to determine what "mischief or imperfection" in the original act the Legislature intended to remedy in 1996. Champagne v. Champagne, supra. We recently noted that the purpose of the 1996 amendments was "to reduce or to eliminate certain protections previously available to all juvenile offenders in an effort to address growing concern about violent crimes committed by juveniles." Commonwealth v. Clint C., 430 Mass. 219, 227-228 (1999). See Doe v. Attorney Gen. (No. 1), 425 Mass. 210, 212-213 & n.8 (1997). To deal specifically with children who commit violent offenses, especially those involving guns, St. 1996, c. 200, § 7, repealed the "transfer" provision, G. L. c. 119, § 61.⁸ The Commonwealth may now proceed directly by indictment against a child and, for the first time in a juvenile proceeding, a judge may impose a sentence to the State prison on a child.

At the same time, the provisions of the 1996 amendments did not eviscerate the longstanding principle that the treatment of children who offend our laws are not criminal proceedings. See, e.g., Department of Youth Servs. v. A Juvenile, 384 Mass. 784, 786 (1981), and cases cited. Notably, the 1996 act did not amend G. L. c. 119, § 53, which declares the legislative policy that the operative provisions of the statutes shall be liberally construed to require rehabilitative "aid, encouragement and guidance" rather than...