Bill Text: FL S0844 | 2017 | Regular Session | Comm Sub

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Bill Title: Criminal Offenses Involving Tombs and Memorials

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-05-01 - Laid on Table, companion bill(s) passed, see CS/CS/CS/HB 107 (Ch. 2017-40) [S0844 Detail]

Download: Florida-2017-S0844-Comm_Sub.html

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       Florida Senate - 2017                       CS for CS for SB 844
       
       
        
       By the Committees on Appropriations; and Criminal Justice; and
       Senators Simmons and Baxley
       
       
       
       
       576-04409-17                                           2017844c2
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to criminal offenses involving tombs
    3         and memorials; amending s. 872.02, F.S.; providing
    4         that a person who willfully and knowingly excavates,
    5         exposes, moves, or removes the contents of a grave or
    6         tomb commits a felony; revising applicability;
    7         authorizing an owner, officer, employee, or agent of
    8         specified cemeteries to relocate the contents of a
    9         grave or tomb, subject to certain conditions;
   10         providing an effective date.
   11          
   12  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   13  
   14         Section 1. Section 872.02, Florida Statutes, is amended to
   15  read
   16         872.02 Injuring or removing tomb or monument; disturbing
   17  contents of grave or tomb; penalties.—
   18         (1) A person commits a felony of the third degree,
   19  punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084
   20  if he or she:
   21         (a) who Willfully and knowingly destroys, mutilates,
   22  defaces, injures, or removes any tomb, monument, gravestone,
   23  burial mound, earthen or shell monument containing human
   24  skeletal remains or associated burial artifacts, or other
   25  approved structure or approved thing placed or designed for a
   26  memorial of the dead, or any fence, railing, curb, or other
   27  thing intended for the protection or ornamentation of any tomb,
   28  monument, gravestone, burial mound, earthen or shell monument
   29  containing human skeletal remains or associated burial
   30  artifacts, or other structure before mentioned, or for any
   31  enclosure for the burial of the dead;, or
   32         (b) Willfully destroys, mutilates, removes, cuts, breaks,
   33  or injures any tree, shrub, or plant placed or being within any
   34  such enclosure, except for a person performing routine
   35  maintenance and upkeep commits a felony of the third degree,
   36  punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
   37         (2) A person who willfully and knowingly excavates,
   38  exposes, moves, removes, or otherwise disturbs the contents of a
   39  tomb or grave or tomb commits a felony of the second degree,
   40  punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
   41         (3) This section does shall not apply to any person acting
   42  under the direction or authority of the Division of Historical
   43  Resources of the Department of State, to cemeteries operating
   44  under chapter 497, any cemeteries removing or relocating the
   45  contents of a grave or tomb as a response to a natural disaster,
   46  or to any person otherwise authorized by law to remove or
   47  disturb a tomb, monument, gravestone, burial mound, or similar
   48  structure, or its contents, as described in subsection (1).
   49         (4) For purposes of this section, the term “tomb” includes
   50  any mausoleum, columbarium, or belowground crypt.
   51         (5) Notwithstanding subsections (1) and (2), an owner,
   52  officer, employee, or agent of a cemetery exempt from regulation
   53  pursuant to s. 497.260 may relocate the contents of a grave or
   54  tomb:
   55         (a) After receiving a written and signed contract between
   56  the owner and a legally authorized person as defined in s.
   57  497.005(43).
   58         (b) If a legally authorized person cannot be located after
   59  a reasonable search or if 75 years or more have elapsed since
   60  the date of entombment, interment, or inurnment, then public
   61  notice must be posted. The public notice must be published once
   62  a week for 4 consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general
   63  circulation in the county where the cemetery is located. The
   64  public notice must contain the name of the cemetery; the name,
   65  address, and telephone number of the cemetery representative
   66  with whom objections may be filed; the reason for relocation of
   67  the contents of the graves or tombs; the names of the human
   68  remains to be relocated; the approximate date of the initial
   69  entombment, interment, or inurnment; the proposed site of
   70  relocation; and the proposed date of relocation. The proposed
   71  date of relocation may not be less than 30 days from last date
   72  of publication. If no objection from a legally authorized person
   73  is received within 30 days from the last date of publication of
   74  the public notice, the cemetery may proceed with relocation.
   75         (6) If a legally authorized person refuses to sign a
   76  contract, as provided in (5)(a), or if a legally authorized
   77  person objects, as provided in (5)(b), a public hearing shall be
   78  held before the county commission of the county where the
   79  cemetery is located, or the city council, if the cemetery is
   80  located in a municipality, and the county commission or the city
   81  council shall have sole authority to grant a request for
   82  relocation of the contents of such graves or tombs.
   83         Section 2. This act shall take effect October 1, 2017.