Texas Penal Code 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 state jail felony, except that an offense under Subsection (a)(5) is a Class A misdemeanor.
Terms Used In Texas Penal Code 42.08
- Actor: means a person whose criminal responsibility is in issue in a criminal action. See Texas Penal Code 1.07
- Another: means a person other than the actor. See Texas Penal Code 1.07
- Conduct: means an act or omission and its accompanying mental state. See Texas Penal Code 1.07
- Consent: means assent in fact, whether express or apparent. See Texas Penal Code 1.07
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Felony: means an offense so designated by law or punishable by death or confinement in a penitentiary. See Texas Penal Code 1.07
- Misdemeanor: means an offense so designated by law or punishable by fine, by confinement in jail, or by both fine and confinement in jail. See Texas Penal Code 1.07
- Person: means an individual or a corporation, association, limited liability company, or other entity or organization governed by the Business Organizations Code. See Texas Penal Code 1.07
(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 § 711.001, Health and Safety Code.