# Is it against the law to shoot a dead person? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 13, 2007, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-against-the-law-to-shoot-a-dead-person/387776 "2007-01-13T00:33:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cartigan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Cartigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartigan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-against-the-law-to-shoot-a-dead-person/387776/1 "2007-01-13T00:33:10Z")
I was reading Janet Evanovich’s “Three To Get Deadly” and Jackie the hooker hires Stephanie to find her boyfriend/pimp who ran off with her car. They find the Jackie’s boyfriend/pimp but he’s already dead. Jackie gets upset not because he’s dead but because she wanted to kill him for stealing her car. So she pulls out a gun and shoots the corpse. Stephanie says “I think it’s agains the law to shoot a dead person?” Is it??? ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-against-the-law-to-shoot-a-dead-person/387776/2 "2007-01-13T00:35:00Z")
Sounds like desecration of a corpse, to me. That’d be a crime, though not one as serious as shooting a live person, of course. Any reason you seem so desperate to make sure? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-against-the-law-to-shoot-a-dead-person/387776/3 "2007-01-13T00:39:23Z")
Generally, yes, desecration of a corpse is illegal. Here it’s called “abuse of corpse,” a class A misdemeanor. One of the defense lawyers in the Manson family trials argued that his client (one of the women, I forget which) had only stabbed an already dead body and was guilty of nothing more than desecration. ---
**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-against-the-law-to-shoot-a-dead-person/387776/4 "2007-01-13T00:41:21Z")
It is also legal to shoot road kill deer out of season. And, as we learned in the news recently, it’s not bestiality to have sex with a dead horse. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-against-the-law-to-shoot-a-dead-person/387776/5 "2007-01-13T03:46:15Z")
[QUOTE=According to Pliny] It is also legal to shoot road kill deer out of season. And, as we learned in the news recently, it’s not bestiality to have sex with a dead horse. [/QUOTE] I hesitantly ask for a link to that last reference to the news ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-against-the-law-to-shoot-a-dead-person/387776/6 "2007-01-13T04:56:15Z")
If _Law & Order_ (a reliable source for legal questions if ever there was one) is to be believed, this is a variation on an old law school hypothetical. Person A sees Person B on a couch. Believing Person B to be sleeping, Person A shoots Person B in the head. However, Person B has suffered a massive heart attack and is already dead. Is Person A guilty of murder? IIRC Person A is not guilty of murder but is guilty of attempted murder. At least in Law & Orderville. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-against-the-law-to-shoot-a-dead-person/387776/7 "2007-01-13T09:20:25Z")
[QUOTE=According to Pliny] And, as we learned in the news recently, it’s not bestiality to have sex with a dead horse. [/QUOTE] It is, however, a terrible social faux pas to beat one. ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-against-the-law-to-shoot-a-dead-person/387776/8 "2007-01-13T13:03:48Z")
I asked a related question a while back… [Can you murder a corpse?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=44612&page=1&pp=50)