Rhode Island § 11-20-2 § 11-20-2. Desecration of grave.

Rhode Island Statutes

§ 11-20-2 — § 11-20-2. Desecration of grave.

Rhode Island § 11-20-2

Title 11Criminal Offenses

Ch. 11-20Graves and Corpses

This text of Rhode Island § 11-20-2 (§ 11-20-2. Desecration of grave.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-20-2 (2026).

Text

§ 11-20-2. Desecration of grave.
Every person who shall willfully and maliciously destroy, mutilate, deface, cover
            over, injure or remove any tomb, monument, gravestone, American Flag, or other structure
            or thing placed or designed for a memorial of the dead, or any fence, railing, curb,
            or other thing intended for the protection or for the ornament of any tomb, monument,
            gravestone, or other structure of the like character and designed for that purposes,
            or of any enclosure for the sepulture of the dead, or dig or plow up, cultivate or
            build upon or within any enclosure or plot of ground used and occupied for the sepulture
            of the dead, 

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§ 11-20-2. Desecration of grave.

Every person who shall willfully and maliciously destroy, mutilate, deface, cover over, injure or remove any tomb, monument, gravestone, American Flag, or other structure or thing placed or designed for a memorial of the dead, or any fence, railing, curb, or other thing intended for the protection or for the ornament of any tomb, monument, gravestone, or other structure of the like character and designed for that purposes, or of any enclosure for the sepulture of the dead, or dig or plow up, cultivate or build upon or within any enclosure or plot of ground used and occupied for the sepulture of the dead, or shall commit any nuisance in it, or wantonly disturb, remove, or in any way desecrate the contents of any grave in any enclosure or plot of ground, shall be guilty of a felony and shall be imprisoned not less than one year and not exceeding three (3) years, and/or be fined not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000), or both and shall, in addition to imprisonment and/or fine, be ordered to make full restitution to any person, business or entity incurring the expense of repairing the grave.

Legislative History

G.L. 1896, ch. 281, § 22; G.L. 1909, ch. 347, § 23; G.L. 1923, ch. 399, § 23; G.L. 1938, ch. 610, § 23; G.L. 1956, § 11-20-2; P.L. 1976, ch. 229, § 1; P.L. 1977, ch. 141, § 1; P.L. 1989, ch. 82, § 1; P.L. 2011, ch. 341, § 1; P.L. 2011, ch. 375, § 1.