The House Committee on Judiciary considers matters relating to civil rights and civil liberties, the criminal and civil justice systems, violence prevention and public safety, and other similar policies.
Establishing Criminal Accountability For Abuse Of A Deceased Individual
In response to a brutal murder last year in Enosburg where the killer also burned the victim’s body, House passed H.41 (An act relating to abuse of the dead body of a person), which establishes a felony crime for abusing the dead body of a person. Inexplicably, this did not already exist in Vermont statute.
The new law would prohibit a person from engaging in various types of conduct that constitutes abuse of a corpse. Specifically, it creates a five-year felony for a person who burns, mutilates, disfigures, dismembers, or destroys a dead human body (while being careful to exclude those who are legally authorized to do so, such as medical examiners and others who work with deceased bodies). The bill also would create an enhanced penalty when a person commits this conduct with the intent to conceal a crime or avoid apprehension, prosecution, or conviction of a crime, or when a person commits a sexual act with a dead human body.
Protecting Parental Rights For All Vermonters Through Confirmatory Adoption
Most people will never have to confirm the legitimacy of their claim that they are the parent of their child. But some, specifically those who become parents through assisted reproduction (such as in vitro fertilization or sperm donation), could face exactly this type of heartbreaking challenge outside of Vermont.
Families created with assisted reproduction are recognized under Vermont law, but other states may not recognize that status, which can become an issue when families travel or relocate.To provide an extra layer of legal protection for these Vermont parents, the House passed H.98 (An act relating to confirmatory adoptions).
Vermont’s current adoption process - which is appropriately extensive, detailed, and time-consuming - is designed for more traditional adoptions that bring children into new homes and families. These requirements are not appropriate in situations where the purpose of the adoption is to confirm legal parent-child relationships that have existed since birth and are already recognized under state law. Confirmatory adoption allows for adoption decrees that must be honored in all states, which is critical to protect the children's best interests and safety.
Expanding Hate Crime Laws To Protect Our Most Vulnerable
The Vermont House passed H.118 (An act relating to expanding the scope of hate-motivated crimes) to expand the scope of Vermont’s hate-crimes enhancement statute to include hate-motivated crimes directed at third parties and groups of people based on their actual or perceived membership in a protected category.
Under current law, a person who commits an underlying crime that is motivated by the victim’s membership in a protected category (e.g., race, color, religion, national origin, and others) may be sentenced to additional time in prison, an additional monetary fine, or both. H.118 amends the hate-motivated crimes statute by expanding the language so that this important enhancement can be used by prosecutors in additional circumstances where the crime was motivated by hate towards a protected group that may not be the specific victim of the crime. This expansion would create a law that more accurately reflects the reality of how some hate crimes are perpetrated.