# Doing violence to a corpse -- illegal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 21, 2005, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doing-violence-to-a-corpse-illegal/332059 "2005-11-21T09:21:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doing-violence-to-a-corpse-illegal/332059/21 "2005-11-21T15:30:58Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > From later on in that same cite: > > For instance, the fact that A shoots a corpse, rather than a person, is also a product of circumstances beyond A’s control; A did not commit murder because the person he intended to kill was already dead. > . > . > . > As a result, the great majority of jurisdictions have now recognized that legal and factual impossibility are “logically indistinguishable,” United States v. Darnell , 545 F.2d 595, 597 (8th Cir. 1976), and have abolished impossibility as a defense. Ok. You win. [http://wings.buffalo.edu/law/bclc/web/pahenley.htm](http://wings.buffalo.edu/law/bclc/web/pahenley.htm) (reviewing cases and statutes nationwide); [http://courtofappeals.mijud.net/DOCUMENTS/OPINIONS/FINAL/SCT/20010727\_S116967(57)\_Thousand.Jul27.PDF](http://courtofappeals.mijud.net/DOCUMENTS/OPINIONS/FINAL/SCT/20010727_S116967(57)_Thousand.Jul27.PDF) ---
**Author:** ![taketa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/45deac/32.png) [@taketa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/taketa)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doing-violence-to-a-corpse-illegal/332059/22 "2005-11-21T19:29:47Z")
I live near a town in Ohio where a woman happened to have a stillborn baby and just happened to throw it away, where it happened to be found by dogs and happened to get carried into a nearby yard where some kids found it. The woman was charged with a 5th degree misdemenor (I think that’s right) or something to that effect for abuse of a corpse. Just to add a lil drama to her story, she was previously charged for check fraud and drug use, just to say a little more. Taketa ---
**Author:** ![manwithear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@manwithear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manwithear)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doing-violence-to-a-corpse-illegal/332059/23 "2005-11-21T20:19:13Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Sure - that’s a problem of proof, though. The jury is perfectly entitled to hear the defendant’s story and believe him… or to disbelieve him, and convict him. Exactly. While a simple test can show whether the wife died of being shot (did the shot wounds bleed?), it is very hard to disprove “I was so sad my wife died, that I unloaded a whole cartridge into the now lifeless corpse that could not sustain her life” ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doing-violence-to-a-corpse-illegal/332059/24 "2005-11-21T20:47:21Z")
> [@don't ask](#): > > I hope he can’t be charged, I have arranged for a friend , while viewing my corpse, to start hitting it and then get progressively more carried away raining blows on my inert body until pulled back by other mourners. He is then to claim, “He started it.” You are a sick, sick individual. And I mean that as a compliment. If I ever make it to an Australia DopeFest (or you ever make it to a VIrginia one), I want to buy you a beer. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doing-violence-to-a-corpse-illegal/332059/25 "2005-11-21T20:56:51Z")
> [@manwithear](#): > > Exactly. While a simple test can show whether the wife died of being shot (did the shot wounds bleed?), it is very hard to disprove “I was so sad my wife died, that I unloaded a whole cartridge into the now lifeless corpse that could not sustain her life” Yes, but it’s not exactly true that the government has to “disprove” this story. If a man claims he wasn’t he that robbed a liquor store, but someone else that looks like him, because “everyone has a twin,” the government doesn’t have to specifically disprove that story. They merely have to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, every element of the crime. Intent is the element that is put at issue by the story the defendant tells here, and intent may be inferred by the jury. In other words, the jury could hear his explanation, and choose to disbelieve it, without the government offering any particular piece of evidence that “disproves” it. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doing-violence-to-a-corpse-illegal/332059/26 "2005-11-21T22:20:12Z")
My cellmate did time for abuse of a corpse. Only this time the victim’s a Clydesdale horse. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doing-violence-to-a-corpse-illegal/332059.md?page=1)