Bad news for Rodger Coghill
Spurred by cases in which bodies of overdose victims were moved to thwart investigations, Illinois state Rep. Dan Beiser, D-Alton, is sponsoring a bill to make unauthorized movement of a corpse a felony.
It also would criminalize something that even Madison County Coroner Steve Nonn thought was already illegal — having sex with the dead.
Beiser said he introduced the legislation at the request of Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons and other law enforcement officials. Gibbons called the relocation of overdose victims an “impediment to investigation” in several cases.
Prohibiting sex with a dead body corrects an obvious omission in the law, Beiser said. If the measure passes, sex with a corpse would be a Class 2 felony, with punishment ranging from probation to seven years in prison. Unauthorized removal of a corpse would be a Class 4 felony, with a penalty ranging from probation to three years.
Nonn said bodies of several people who died of drug overdoses in Madison County over the past year or two were taken from where they died. One was abandoned in a cemetery, another left on a road.
“That definitely needed to be addressed,” he said.
In recent months, Metro East prosecutors have filed charges of drug-induced homicide against several people who allegedly supplied drugs to people who died of overdoses. Police regard the sites as crime scenes. Nonn said an existing law against concealment of a homicidal death does not always fit the circumstances of a drug death. The bill would exempt emergency responders, physicians, medical students, funeral directors and employees of coroners’ or medical examiners’ offices.
Gibbons said a law prohibiting sex with a corpse is needed out of respect for the dead. He said he has been told there was one such case in the county many years ago that could not be prosecuted for lack of such a law.
Beiser’s legislation is House Bill 5122.
Source: STLToday.com
Technically, Rodger might be in the clear as long as all he did was shoot his badboysjuice all over a corpse without moving it. That way the only person he’d be having sex with would be his usual partner … himself.
I may hate you, Sean, but that Rodger guy creeps me the fuck out.
so Illinois has never had a case, nor needed to investigate allegations of necrophilia? that seems odd. i know it is not the most common occurrence as far as crimes go – but i dunno…just seems odd to me if a case has never been prosecuted.
My guess is that rape kits are rarely brought to mortuaries; necro freaks probably have to get caught in the act, and very few criminals of any shade are caught in the act.
good point, sir. it is probably a solo activity one could get away with indefinitely, without arousing suspicion…especially if they work in the death industry sector.