Judiciary committee reviews updated draft of H.41 creating "abuse of a dead human body" offense

Legislative counsel Ben Novogradski walked the Judiciary Committee through an updated draft of H.41 that would recast and relocate an offense titled “abuse of a dead human body,” define prohibited sexual conduct against a dead body, and set new penalties.

Novogradski said the bill moves the offense from the homicide chapter into Title 13, chapter 81, subchapter 3 (statutes addressing dead bodies, cemeteries and monuments), and that the draft would appear as 13 V.S.A. § 3761a with the caption “abuse of a dead human body.”

Under the draft described to the committee, a person would be guilty of abuse of a dead human body if they knowingly and without legal authorization intentionally hide, burn, mutilate, disfigure, dismember, desecrate, otherwise conceal or destroy a dead human body. That basic violation would…