MA · jury_instructions
Instruction 4.300, Criminal Model Jury Instructions for Use in the District Court
Soliciting another to commit a crime (G.L. c. 274, § 8)
SOLICITING ANOTHER TO COMMIT A CRIME
G.L. c. 274, § 8
The defendant is charged with soliciting another person to
commit a crime. 1 To prove the defendant guilty of this offense, the
Commonwealth must prove two things beyond a reasonable doubt:
First: That the defendant solicited, counseled, advised, or
enticed another person to commit a crime; and
Second: That the defendant intended for that person to follow
through and in fact commit that crime.
To prove the first element, the Commonwealth must prove
beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant solicited, counseled,
advised, or enticed another person to commit the crime of
.
Solicitation or enticement means the act of asking, urging,
persuading, inducing, luring, or otherwise coaxing someone to do an
act.
In this case, the Commonwealth alleges that the defendant
solicited [name of person] to commit a(n) [crime alleged] .
1 The crime alleged must be one punishable by imprisonment in state prison.
[Briefly state elements of the target offense.]
To prove the second element, the Commonwealth must prove
beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant intended for the other
person to follow through and in fact commit the crime of [crime alleged] .
The Commonwealth does not need to prove that the crime was
actually carried out or that the other person fully agreed to commit
the crime. The Commonwealth must prove that the defendant
intended that the other person commit the crime. A person’s intent is
their purpose or objective. This requires you to make a decision about
the defendant’s state of mind at that time. You may examine any
actions or words of the defendant, and all of the surrounding
circumstances, to help you determine what the defendant’s intent was
at that time.
If the Commonwealth has proven each of the elements beyond a
reasonable doubt, you should return a verdict of guilty. If the
Commonwealth failed to prove one or more elements beyond a
reasonable doubt, you must return a verdict of not guilty.
History
Instruction 4.300, Criminal Model Jury Instructions for Use in the District Court (October 2024). Published by the Administrative Office of the District Court, District Court Department of the Trial Court, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on www.mass.gov. © 1988-2009 Administrative Office of the District Court; reproduced under its title-page permission ("You may freely reproduce or copy this work if you identify its source and any changes made to the original work"). Source: https://www.mass.gov/doc/4300-soliciting-another-to-commit-a-crime-gl-c-274-ss-8/download. Changes made: the text is extracted from the published PDF (verified by three extraction engines); the running headers, page numbers and line layout are removed, and a closing NOTES section, where printed, is carried as the note.
Provenance
- Source
- mass.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-25
- Edition
- 2026-09-25
- Content hash
cc3104e52d6cd2fb08cc056b64b1bf38165a62b710ab1eaca0ed97208870ac87
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