Edward B. Fleury v. Massachusetts

Edward Fleury is a retired police chief of Pelham, Massachusetts. He is a hunter, gun collector, and gunsmith. In 2014 local and state police conducted a search of his home to investigate an alleged assault with a firearm. During the course of search, the police seized Mr. Fleury’s gun collection. The police claimed that his firearms were not properly stored, despite the presence of his wife in the home who was duly licensed to possess firearms. The charges were severed. In his first trial Mr. Fleury was tried upon the assault charge and five counts of Improper Storage. Three of the Improper Storage counts were directed out, and he was acquitted upon the remaining two, as well as the assault charge. In the second trial he was acquitted of ten counts of Improper Storage of a Large Capacity Firearm, a felony, but convicted upon twelve. THE QUESTIONS PRESENTED ARE:

1. Whether Massachusetts gun storage law M.G.L. c. 140, § 131L, providing enhanced penalties for different types of firearms, is unconstitutionally vague on its face and in violation of the Second, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution as a result of a failure to properly define the term “large capacity weapon.”.

2. Whether the unit of prosecution for improper storage of firearm under M.G.L. c. 140, § 131L is ambiguous, thereby subjecting defendants to double jeopardy in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.