Title 11
Criminal Offenses

Chapter 20
Graves and Corpses

R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-20-2

§ 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.

History of Section.
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.