Senate Bill No. 79
(By Senators Rowe, Caldwell and White)
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[Introduced January 14, 2004; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §61-8-14 of the code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to increasing criminal penalties
for intentional cemetery damage; providing that each
mausoleum, burial site within a mausoleum, grave, gravestone
or other gravemarker or other designated human burial site
desecrated constitutes a separate offense; and providing for
a felony offense for persons who intentionally desecrate four
or more mausoleums, graves, gravestones or gravemarkers or
designated burial sites, including any combination thereof,
during any continuous sequence of acts of desecration.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §61-8-14
of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 8. CRIMES AGAINST CHASTITY, MORALITY AND DECENCY.
§61-8-14. Disinterment or displacement of dead body or part thereof; damage to cemetery or graveyard; penalties;
damages in civil action.
(a) Any person who unlawfully disinters or displaces a dead
human body, or any part of a dead human body, placed or deposited
in any vault, mausoleum or any temporary or permanent burial place,
is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be
confined in the penitentiary or other suitable a state correctional
facility for a determinate sentence of not less than two nor more
than five years.
(b) (1) Any person who intentionally desecrates any cemetery,
graveyard, mausoleum, burial site within a mausoleum, grave,
gravestone or other gravemarker or other designated human burial
site is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall
be fined not less than five hundred dollars nor more than two
thousand dollars, or and confined in the county or regional jail
not less than ten days nor more than one year, or both fined and
confined: Provided, That each mausoleum, burial site within a
mausoleum, grave, gravestone or other designated human burial site
desecrated is a separate offense: Provided, however, That any
person who intentionally desecrates four or more mausoleums,
gravesites within a mausoleum, graves, gravestones or other
gravemarkers or other designated burial sites, including any
combination thereof, during any continuous sequence of acts of
desecration, is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than two thousand dollars nor more than
five thousand dollars and confined in a state correctional facility
not less than one nor more than three years.
(2) For the purposes of this subsection, "desecrate" means
defacing, damaging or otherwise physically mistreating in a way
that a reasonable person knows will outrage the sensibilities of
persons likely to observe or discover his or her actions.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to increase criminal
penalties for intentional cemetery damage. The bill provides that
each mausoleum, burial site within a mausoleum, grave, gravestone
or other gravemarker, or other designated human burial site
desecrated, constitutes a separate offense. It, additionally,
creates a felony offense for persons who intentionally desecrate
four or more mausoleums, graves, gravestones or designated burial
sites, including any combination thereof, during any continuous
sequence of acts of desecration.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.