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| | SJC Limits Prosecution for Sodomy |
 | | The SJC declined to revisit the definition of what is a public place and what is a private area, ruling only that acts of sodomy are legal as long as they are done in private or out of public view. |
 | | As part of the GLAD suit, the attorney general’s office, along with the Suffolk and Middlesex district attorney’s offices, agreed that no one would be prosecuted under the statutes unless the act was performed in public, or there was evidence of coercion or violence. |
 | | Ann Donlan, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, downplayed the significance of the SJC ruling, saying that it merely restated existing law and that the court had not found the law unconstitutional, as GLAD had requested. |
| www.sodomylaws.org /usa/massachusetts/manews13.htm (748 words) |
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