Commonwealth v. Luckern

This case concerns the meaning of a provision of the habitual offender statute, G. L. c. 279, § 25(a), amended by St. 2012, c. 192, § 47. The question before us is whether a defendant given a sentence of three years or more in State prison that is suspended so that the defendant must serve less than three years has been “sentenced to state prison or state correctional facility or a federal corrections facility for a term not less than [three] years.”

The prior version of the habitual offender statute applied to those who had “been twice convicted of crime and sentenced and committed to prison…