''Commonwealth v. O'Malley'', 97 Mass. 584 (1867), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts that overturned a conviction for

embezzlement Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...

because the evidence supported a case for larceny, even though the defendant had previously been acquitted of larceny. The case illustrates the problem of gaps in similar

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omniprese ...

offenses with technical differences, and this problem was later addressed by consolidation of the common law offenses in things like the

Model Penal Code The Model Penal Code (MPC) is a model act designed to stimulate and assist U.S. state legislatures to update and standardize the Criminal law of the United States, penal law of the United States.MPC (Foreword). The MPC was a project of the America ...

.Bonnie, R.J. et al. ''Criminal Law, Second Edition.'' Foundation Press, New York, NY: 2004, p. 271

References

U.S. state criminal case law 1867 in United States case law Massachusetts state case law 1867 in Massachusetts Law articles needing an infobox {{US-case-law-stub