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COFFIN v. SUPERINTENDENT, MASSACHUSETTS TREATMENT CENTER

SJC-10605.

458 Mass. 186 (2010)

ALFRED J. COFFIN v. SUPERINTENDENT, MASSACHUSETTS TREATMENT CENTER, & another.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

November 4, 2010.

Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Ryan M. Schiff, Committee for Public Counsel Services (Beth L. Eisenberg, Committee for Public Counsel Services, & Lorenzo Perez with him) for the plaintiff.

Ellyn H. Lazar-Moore, Assistant District Attorney, for District Attorney for the Middle District.

Martha Coakley, Attorney General, & Argie K. Shapiro & Pamela L. Hunt, Assistant Attorneys General, for the Attorney General, amicus curiae, submitted a brief.

Present: MARSHALL, C.J., IRELAND, SPINA, COWIN, CORDY, BOTSFORD, & GANTS, JJ.

COWIN, J.

General Laws c. 123A, § 12 (b) (§ 12 [b]), permits the Commonwealth to file a petition to commit a person as a "sexually dangerous person" (SDP) only if the person is a "prisoner or youth in the custody of the department of youth services." This case requires that we decide whether, for purposes of § 12 (b), a person placed in custody pursuant to an unconstitutional statute is nevertheless a "prisoner" within the meaning...

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