{"id":190,"date":"2013-03-16T05:44:28","date_gmt":"2013-03-16T05:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.massachusettscriminaldefenselawyerblog.com\/2013\/03\/how-does-a-court-prove-serious.html"},"modified":"2013-03-16T05:44:28","modified_gmt":"2013-03-16T05:44:28","slug":"how-does-a-court-prove-serious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/how-does-a-court-prove-serious\/","title":{"rendered":"What injuries constitute “serious bodily injury” when charged with an assault and battery in Massachusetts"},"content":{"rendered":"

When facing an assault and battery charge in Massachusetts<\/a> a defendant may face the more severe charge of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury if the evidence shows the assault caused a serious bodily injury. This turns the assault and battery from a misdemeanor to a felony and carries significantly harsher punishment. The recent case of Commonwealth v. Scott<\/u><\/a> was decided by the Supreme Judicial Court and faced the issue of what injuries are sufficient to be a serious bodily injury under G. L. c. 265 \u00a713A(b). <\/a><\/p>\n

Commonwealth v. Scott involved a defendant who went to his ex-girlfriend’s home to confront her. Defendant became violent during the time in the victim’s home. Defendant punched the victim in the face, stomach, threatened her with a knife and beat her with a can of soda. The victim suffered several injuries, the worst being a lacerated liver. <\/p>\n

The defendant was convicted of several crimes like kidnapping and assault and battery, but because of the lacerated liver defendant was also convicted of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury. To constitute a serious bodily injury, the injury had to result in either (1) a permanent disfigurement; (2) loss or impairment of a bodily function, limb or organ or; (3) a substantial risk of death. The only question on this appeal was if there was enough evidence to show the injury caused an impairment of an organ. The court held that there was no sufficient evidence for a jury to conclude that there was impairment. <\/p>\n

Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When facing an assault and battery charge in Massachusetts a defendant may face the more severe charge of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury if the evidence shows the assault caused a serious bodily injury. This turns the assault and battery from a misdemeanor to a felony and carries significantly harsher punishment. The recent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-domestic-assault-and-battery"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat injuries constitute "serious bodily injury" when charged with an assault and battery in Massachusetts — Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog — March 16, 2013<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When facing an assault and battery charge in Massachusetts a defendant may face the more severe charge of assault and battery causing serious bodily — March 16, 2013\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/how-does-a-court-prove-serious\/\" \/>\n<meta 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