Watts v. Commonwealth

This case requires us to decide whether St. 2013, c. 84 (act), which extended the Juvenile Court’s jurisdiction to persons who are seventeen years of age at the time of *50committing an offense, applies retroactively to persons who were seventeen years of age when they committed an offense and against whom criminal proceedings had begun and were pending on September 18, 2013, the effective date of the act. We conclude that the act is not retroactive to criminal cases begun and pending before September 18, 2013, against persons who were seventeen years of age at the time of the alleged offense.

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