Shipps v. District Attorney for the Norfolk District

William M. Shipps, Jr., filed a complaint in the county court in 2014, pursuant to G. L. c. 231 A, seeking a declaration that his sentences for murder in the first degree under G. L. c. 265, § 2, as amended by St. 1979, c. 488, § 2, which were imposed thirty years earlier, are unconstitutional. A single justice of this court dismissed the complaint. We affirm.

In 1984, Shipps was convicted on two indictments charging murder in the first degree and other crimes. He was sentenced on the murder convictions to two consecutive life terms in State prison without the possibility of parole, and to…