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House Bill 1012 |
House Author: Hilderbran |
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Effective: 6-18-05 |
Senate Sponsor: Whitmire |
Texas law provides for the offense of desecration of a cemetery in the Health and Safety Code. House Bill 1012 repeals the Health and Safety Code provisions and amends the Penal Code by broadening the offense of abuse of a corpse to include a person who knowingly and without legal authority vandalizes, damages, or treats in an offensive manner the space in which a human corpse has been interred or otherwise permanently laid to rest, under certain circumstances. The bill also removes the requirement that the offense of abuse of a corpse be committed intentionally. House Bill 1012 requires the court to order a defendant who has been convicted of the offense of criminal mischief involving damage or destruction inflicted on a place of human burial or of abuse of a corpse to make restitution to the affected cemetery. The bill allows the restitution required of an unemancipated minor to be satisfied by community service hours or by the minor's parents, at the court's discretion. House Bill 1012 amends the Family Code to provide that if a juvenile is adjudicated to have engaged in the conduct described above, in addition to any other conditions of probation, the court is required to order restitution.