Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Hi--

Are there laws against beating an already dead person?

I have a scene where a Drug User A believes another Drug User B has fallen asleep and beats him up to steal his drugs. Turns out the guy, Drug User B, was already dead. Is that illegal? Will Drug User A get prosecuted for stealing or is there another crime here?

Thanks!

Abuse of a corpse is illegal in Oregon. It's a felony.

Why wouldn't A just simply steal B's drugs while B was asleep (i.e. without beating)?

Maybe he thought he was a zombie junkie and he had to beat him first to prevent him from trying to eat his brain?

Abuse of a corpse is illegal in Oregon. It's a felony.

Ditto for Alabama, Class C felony.

Ditto for Alabama, Class C felony.

Here, if the abuse is done to hide a homicide, it's a class B. Otherwise, a class C.

Down here you can;t be done for murder even if that is your intent if you try and kill a dead person. For instance, you go into a bed room and shoot someone through the head with the intent to kill them, but an autopsy finds out they were already dead from a heart attack.

You can be done for interfering with a corpse though.

Down here you can;t be done for murder even if that is your intent if you try and kill a dead person. For instance, you go into a bed room and shoot someone through the head with the intent to kill them, but an autopsy finds out they were already dead from a heart attack.

You can be done for interfering with a corpse though.

It would be the same here. An ingenious prosecutor might try for attempted murder though.