Committee concurs with Senate amendment to H‑41, moves burial‑transport penalty to civil fine and adds criminal desecration provisions

The House Judiciary Committee voted May 14 to concur with the Senate amendment to H‑41, a bill that creates new criminal offenses for intentional abuse or desecration of a dead body and that changes an existing burial‑transport violation in the public‑health code from a potential five‑year felony to a civil penalty with a $1,000 fine.

Committee members said the change was intended to avoid imposing a felony on funeral directors or private citizens for administrative or permit timing errors while preserving strong criminal penalties for intentionally abusive conduct. The committee framed the bill as filling a gap the state lacked: members said Vermont was one of the few states without a criminal statute specifically addressing certain types of abuse of a dead body.

Jessa Barnard of the Vermont Medical Society told the committee that, aside from changing the penalty from criminal to civil for the burial‑transport provision, the bill otherwise leaves the public‑health statutory framework intact and does not otherwise alter medical‑facility rules on handling remains. Ben from the office of the administrative counsel told the committee that an earlier House draft had omitted explicit “civil penalty” language by mistake; the omission was corrected in the Senate amendment and the committee concurrence aligns the text with the committee’s prior intent.

Representative Brett Coffin raised a memorandum circulated to senators and asked whether the statute might be read to apply in miscarriage or stillbirth situations; committee members and staff said Title 18 public‑health statutes (including burial and birth chapters) remain the principal authority for those matters and that the bill’s criminal provisions address intentionally abusive acts such as burning, mutilating or disfiguring a body. Committee members noted that prosecutors can still bring obstruction and related charges if a body is moved to hide an underlying crime.

The bill retains criminal penalties for intentionally abusive acts: committee discussion identified a base penalty of up to five years’ imprisonment and a $5,000 fine for those offenses, with aggravated offenses carrying higher maximums (committee discussion referenced aggravated terms up to 15 years and higher fines). The burial‑transport violation (moving or transporting remains without a permit) was changed to a civil violation with the $1,000 fine to avoid imposing a felony for clerical or timing errors such as a lapsed permit, committee members said.

After discussion the chair called for a motion to concur with the Senate amendment; a committee member moved and another seconded. Members voted by raised hands; the chair recognized the result and the committee proceeded. The record at the hearing does not include an exact roll‑call tally in the transcript excerpt provided to the committee.