(Applicable to District Court and Superior Court)
Mass. R. Crim. P. 16
Reporter's Notes--2022
This amendment to Rule 16(a) clarifies when the prosecuting attorney's authority to enter a nolle prosequi of a pending case ends, based on the meaning of "sentence" required by Commonwealth v. Beverly, 485 Mass. 1 (2020). The prosecuting attorney has wide and exclusive authority to enter a nolle prosequi, as a matter of both constitutional separation of powers and common law. Commonwealth v. Cheney, 440 Mass. 568, 574 (2003). This authority extends to any time before the pronouncement of sentence or the imposition of probation or a continuance without a finding. Commonwealth v. Boyd, 474 Mass. 99, 103 (2016).