Texas Penal Code - Section 42.08. Abuse Of Corpse
Legal Research Home >
Texas Lawyer > Penal Code > Texas Penal Code - Section 42.08. Abuse Of Corpse
§ 42.08. ABUSE OF CORPSE. (a) A person commits an offense
if the person, without legal authority, knowingly:
(1) disinters, disturbs, damages, dissects, in whole
or in part, carries away, or treats in an offensive manner a human
corpse;
(2) conceals a human corpse knowing it to be illegally
disinterred;
(3) sells or buys a human corpse or in any way traffics
in a human corpse;
(4) transmits or conveys, or procures to be
transmitted or conveyed, a human corpse to a place outside the
state; or
(5) vandalizes, damages, or treats in an offensive
manner the space in which a human corpse has been interred or
otherwise permanently laid to rest.
(b) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor.
(c) In this section, "human corpse" includes:
(1) any portion of a human corpse;
(2) the cremated remains of a human corpse; or
(3) any portion of the cremated remains of a human
corpse.
(d) If conduct constituting an offense under this section
also constitutes an offense under another section of this code, the
actor may be prosecuted under either section or both sections.
(e) It is a defense to prosecution under this section that
the actor:
(1) as a member or agent of a cemetery organization,
removed or damaged anything that had been placed in or on any
portion of the organization's cemetery in violation of the rules of
the organization; or
(2) removed anything:
(A) placed in the cemetery in violation of the
rules of the cemetery organization; or
(B) placed in the cemetery by or with the
cemetery organization's consent but that, in the organization's
judgment, had become wrecked, unsightly, or dilapidated.
(f) In this section, "cemetery" and "cemetery organization"
have the meanings assigned by Section 711.001, Health and Safety
Code.
Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 883, ch. 399, § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1974.
Renumbered from V.T.C.A., Penal Code § 42.10 by Acts 1993, 73rd
Leg., ch. 900, § 1.01, eff. Sept. 1, 1994. Amended by Acts 2005,
79th Leg., ch. 1025, § 1, eff. June 18, 2005.
Section: 42.05 42.055 42.06 42.061 42.062 42.07 42.072 42.08 42.09 42.091 42.10 42.11 42.12 42.13 43.01
Texas Lawyers
Last modified: August 10, 2007
| 