MA · jury_instructions
Instruction 6.100, Criminal Model Jury Instructions for Use in the District Court
Affray (G.L. c. 277, § 39)
AFFRAY
G.L. c. 277, § 39
The defendant is charged with violating the law by engaging in an
affray with others. In order to prove the defendant guilty of this offense,
the Commonwealth must prove three things beyond a reasonable doubt:
First: That the defendant fought with one or more other persons;
Second: That the fighting took place in a public place; and
Third: That at least one person who was lawfully present in the
public place was put in fear as a result of the fighting that occurred.
With regard to the first element, fighting is the use of physical force
or violence or any threat to immediately use such force or violence.
History
Instruction 6.100, Criminal Model Jury Instructions for Use in the District Court (Revised May 2014). 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/6100-affray-gl-c-277-ss-39/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
7ed0c14dd7c257ecf40d6f9c58d36cbb2195ded0466987d7539a2169bd7a1840
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