Removes the $250 amount of damage from cemetery desecration in the second degree; makes cemetery desecration in the second degree a class E felony to apply to any damage or theft regardless of value; adds crime of cemetery desecration in the first degree and makes such crime a class D felony.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2507
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 19, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. EICHENSTEIN -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Codes
AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to cemetery desecration; and
to repeal certain provisions of such law relating thereto
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 145.23 of the penal law, as amended by chapter 353
2 of the laws of 2007, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 145.23 Cemetery desecration in the [first] second degree.
4 A person is guilty of cemetery desecration in the [first] second
5 degree when with intent to damage property of another person, and having
6 no right to do so nor any reasonable ground to believe that he or she
7 has such right, he or she:
8 (a) damages any real or personal property maintained as a cemetery
9 plot, grave, burial place or other place of interment of human remains
10 [in an amount exceeding two hundred fifty dollars]; or
11 (b) with intent to steal personal property, he or she steals personal
12 property[, the value of which exceeds two hundred fifty dollars,] which
13 is located at a cemetery plot, grave, burial place or other place of
14 interment of human remains and which property is owned by the person or
15 organization which maintains or owns such place or the estate, next-of-
16 kin or representatives of the deceased person interred there[; or
17 (c) commits the crime of cemetery desecration in the second degree as
18 defined in section 145.22 of this article and has been previously
19 convicted of the crime of cemetery desecration in the second degree
20 within the preceding five years].
21 Cemetery desecration in the [first] second degree is a class E felony.
22 § 2. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 145.24 to read
23 as follows:
24 § 145.24 Cemetery desecration in the first degree.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00407-01-1
A. 2507 2
1 A person is guilty of cemetery desecration in the first degree when he
2 or she commits the crime of cemetery desecration in the second degree as
3 defined in section 145.23 of this article and has been previously
4 convicted of the crime of cemetery desecration in the second degree or
5 cemetery desecration in the first degree within the preceding five
6 years.
7 Cemetery desecration in the first degree is a class D felony.
8 § 3. Section 145.22 of the penal law is REPEALED.
9 § 4. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed-
10 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.
