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
________________________________________________________________________
4821
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 13, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. FELDER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed 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] the
7 person has such right, [he] the person:
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] the person steals
12 personal property[, the value of which exceeds two hundred fifty
13 dollars,] which is located at a cemetery plot, grave, burial place or
14 other place of interment of human remains and which property is owned by
15 the person or organization which maintains or owns such place or the
16 estate, next-of-kin or representatives of the deceased person interred
17 there[; or
18 (c) commits the crime of cemetery desecration in the second degree as
19 defined in section 145.22 of this article and has been previously
20 convicted of the crime of cemetery desecration in the second degree
21 within the preceding five years].
22 Cemetery desecration in the [first] second degree is a class E felony.
23 § 2. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 145.24 to read
24 as follows:
25 § 145.24 Cemetery desecration in the first degree.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00576-01-5
S. 4821 2
1 A person is guilty of cemetery desecration in the first degree when
2 such person commits the crime of cemetery desecration in the second
3 degree as defined in section 145.23 of this article and has been previ-
4 ously convicted of the crime of cemetery desecration in the second
5 degree or cemetery desecration in the first degree within the preceding
6 five 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.
