HBA-MSH, JEK C.S.H.B. 2114 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 2114 By: Allen Corrections 4/8/2001 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, there are no restrictions on who can be interred in a cemetery in relation to others interred in the same cemetery. Recently in Grand Prairie, a victim of a murder-suicide was interred in a local cemetery in close proximity to the murderer. The proximity of these interments has caused the member's of the victim's family a great deal of anxiety which will continue as long as they visit the grave site. C.S.H.B. 2114 prohibits the burial of a murderer in the same cemetery as the victim of that murder on request of the victim's family. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 2114 amends the Health and Safety Code to prohibit an individual, corporation, partnership, firm, trust, or association that operates or owns a cemetery from interring the remains of an individual who may have murdered another person if the murder victim is interred in that cemetery, and the family of the victim gives written notice to the cemetery requesting that the individual convicted of murder not be interred in the cemetery if the individual was identified by a police or autopsy report as the murderer or the family of the victim alleges the family has reason to believe the victim was murdered by the individual. The bill sets forth penalties for a violation of this provision. The bill prohibits the assessment of damages or civil penalties if the operator of the cemetery proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the cemetery is the only cemetery serving the municipality or county in which the victim and murderer lived and the bodies of the victims and murderer were placed as far apart in the cemetery as possible or in different parts of the cemetery. The bill authorizes the family of an individual who is refused interment to contest in court an allegation of murder by the victim's family. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 2114 differs from the original bill by prohibiting the interment of an individual who may have murdered another person in the same cemetery as the victim only if the individual was convicted of the victim's murder, is identified by a police or autopsy report as the murderer or the family of the victim alleges the family has reason to believe the victim was murdered by the individual. The substitute authorizes the family of a person who is refused interment to contest in court an allegation of murder by the victim's family. The substitute prohibits penalties for a violation if the operator of the cemetery proves that the cemetery is the only one in the area and the bodies were interred as far apart as possible or in different parts of the cemetery.