# Could they legally charge cops with abuse of a corpse?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-they-legally-charge-cops-with-abuse-of-a-corpse/742704>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 10, 2016, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-they-legally-charge-cops-with-abuse-of-a-corpse/742704 "2016-01-10T17:52:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-they-legally-charge-cops-with-abuse-of-a-corpse/742704/1 "2016-01-10T17:52:41Z")

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I’ve a hypothetical: can they legally charge cops with abuse of a corpse?

Hypothetical: a cop shoots some unarmed person 15 times and a pathologist determines the second shot was fatal. Could the law enforcement officer, were the prosecutor be so inclined, be charged with 13 counts of desecrating a corpse?

Were I to find a corpse and shot it 13 times what would they likely do to me?

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**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-they-legally-charge-cops-with-abuse-of-a-corpse/742704/2 "2016-01-10T17:57:04Z")

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I’ve never heard of anyone charged with “abuse of a corpse” because they shot or stabbed him more times than they needed to. You know, because that is pretty stupid.

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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-they-legally-charge-cops-with-abuse-of-a-corpse/742704/3 "2016-01-10T17:58:00Z")

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This premise was used in at least 1 Perry Mason book I read. Not that anyone was charged, but that the eminent attorney would claim his client shot the victim only after they were already dead, and thus only guilty of desecrating a corpse. I recall some reason why that would not even qualify as attempted murder, but you’ll need one of our lawyerly types to explain that.

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**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-they-legally-charge-cops-with-abuse-of-a-corpse/742704/4 "2016-01-11T13:12:58Z")

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Seeing that shots are usually fired in rapid succession, it’s hard for me to imagine a forensic pathologist being able to determine that the second shot in a series caused fatal injury and that #13 fired five seconds later hit a corpse.

It might well be possible to say that particular shots struck vital areas and that one or more would have been fatal, but determining this by sequence when all shots produce hemorrhaging sounds difficult if not impossible.

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**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-they-legally-charge-cops-with-abuse-of-a-corpse/742704/5 "2016-01-11T14:25:35Z")

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No, in order to prove _mens rea_ for abusing a corpse you’d have to demonstrate that there was intent to do so. Clearly the intent was to render a living person dead, not to abuse the dead, therefore there can be no _mens rea_ for that specific act.