Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 266, § 40 (2026)

Common and notorious thief

✓ current as of July 2026

Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MAmalegislature.gov (official) JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

Section 40. Whoever, having been convicted, upon indictment, of larceny or of being accessory to larceny before the fact, afterward commits a larceny or is accessory thereto before the fact, and is convicted thereof upon indictment, and whoever is convicted at the same sitting of the court, as principal or accessory before the fact, of three distinct larcenies, shall be adjudged a common and notorious thief, and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than twenty years or in jail for not more than two and one half years.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 22 cases (4 in the last 5 years), 1926–2025 · leading case: Commonwealth v. Mills, 764 N.E.2d 854 (Mass. 2002).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

Commonwealth v. Mills, 764 N.E.2d 854 (Mass. 2002). · cites it 3× “Based on the five larceny convictions, the judge adjudicated the defendant a “common and notorious thief” pursuant to G. L. c. 266, § 40, 2 and sentenced him to serve not less than eighteen and not more than twenty years in prison with various lesser concurrent sentences on the…”

Commonwealth v. Crocker, 424 N.E.2d 524 (Mass. 1981). · cites it 4× “On the larceny convictions, the trial judge adjudged Crocker a “common and notorious thief” under G. L. c. 266, § 40, and sentenced him to a term of eight to fifteen years at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Walpole.”

Commonwealth v. Lepper, 798 N.E.2d 1030 (Mass. App. Ct. 2003). · cites it 4× “The trial judge adjudicated the defendant a common and notorious thief under G. L. c. 266, § 40, and sentenced him to ten to fifteen years in prison on the underlying larceny convictions.”

Commonwealth v. Garvey, 76 N.E.3d 987 (Mass. 2017). · cites it 2× “, G. L. c. 266, § 40 (“whoever is convicted .”

Commonwealth v. Clark, 758 N.E.2d 1100 (Mass. App. Ct. 2001). · cites it 3× “G. L. c. 266, § 40. As Justice Lemuel Shaw explained, “[t]he effect of the [common and notorious thief] statute is to consolidate the .”

Commonwealth v. Ryan, 944 N.E.2d 617 (Mass. App. Ct. 2011). · cites it 2× “See G. L. c. 266, § 40. On appeal, the defendant contends that (1) the evidence was insufficient to sustain a conviction of credit card fraud pursuant to G.”

Commonwealth v. Carlson, 93 N.E.3d 1198 (Mass. App. Ct. 2018). “266, § 30, as a common and notorious thief, G. L. c. 266, § 40. After trial, but before sentencing, the Commonwealth dismissed the latter portion of the charge.”

Commonwealth v. Greenberg, 160 N.E.2d 181 (Mass. 1959). “Each defendant assigned as error the judge’s adjudication *586 of him under G. L. c. 266, § 40, of being a common and notorious thief.”

Barry v. Ficco, 392 F. Supp. 2d 83 (D. Mass. 2005). · cites it 2× “266, § 30 ) and breaking and entering a truck or trailer (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 266, § 20A). The court found the petitioner to be a common and notorious thief under Mass.”

Commonwealth v. Mills, 745 N.E.2d 981 (Mass. App. Ct. 2001). · cites it 2× “Because of the result we reach on these three larceny counts, we vacate as well the adjudication of the defendant as a “common and notorious thief” pursuant to G. L. c. 266, § 40, and therefore remand the matter to the Superior Court for resentencing.”

Commonwealth v. Ruiz, 108 N.E.3d 447 (Mass. 2018). “269, § 10 (firearm offenses); G. L. c. 266, § 40 (common and notorious thief); G.”

Commonwealth v. Baker, 330 N.E.2d 794 (Mass. 1975). “There is no indication whether, in sentencing the defendants, the judge considered the applicability of G. L. c. 266, § 40, relating to the punishment of “a common and notorious thief.”

Show all 22 citing cases →

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.