Relating to the youth behavioral health workforce.

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Lisa Reynolds and 1 co-sponsor

Broadens cemetery protections to include landscaping and grounds, and adopts a discovery-based 3-year statute of limitations for prosecuting cemetery vandalism.

In committee upon adjournment.

Summary — SB 421: Criminal Law — Destroying Funerary Objects and Cemetery Elements; Statute of Limitations and Prohibition (Chapter 158)

Status and timeline
- Introduced (Maryland): January 20, 2025.
- Enacted: Approved by the Governor as Chapter 158 on April 22, 2025.
- Effective date: October 1, 2025.

Purpose
- To strengthen criminal protections for cemeteries by (1) expanding the set of cemetery elements protected from willful destruction, and (2) extending the time period in which authorities may prosecute such offenses (a discovery-style statute of limitations).

Key provisions
- Expansion of prohibited conduct (Criminal Law §10‑404(a)):
- Existing law already criminalized willfully destroying, damaging, defacing, or removing “associated funerary objects” (e.g., gravestones, monuments) and certain structures (buildings, walls, fences, railings).
- SB 421 adds “landscaping or any other part of the grounds of a cemetery” to the list of protected items/areas, making willful destruction, damage, defacement, or removal of these elements a misdemeanor under §10‑404(a).
- Exception retained and clarified:
- Removal of objects, landscaping, or other cemetery-ground elements remains lawful when done for repair or replacement and done at the request or with the permission of heirs/descendants or the cemetery owner/manager.
- Statute of limitations change (Courts & Judicial Proceedings §5‑106):
- Prior: misdemeanor prosecutions generally had to be instituted within one year after the offense.
- New rule: prosecutions for violations of §10‑404(a) or (b) must be instituted within three years after local authorities in fact knew or reasonably should have known of the violation. (Implements a “discovery” trigger rather than a strict clock from the commission of the offense.)

Penalties
- Violation of §10‑404(a) (destruction of funerary objects/structures/grounds): misdemeanor punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment and/or a fine up to $10,000.
- Violations of §10‑404(b) (trees/plants/shrubs) and related subsections: misdemeanor punishable by up to 2 years imprisonment and/or a fine up to $500.
- Restitution/repair costs: existing law requires payment for restoration of damaged cemetery property; those obligations remain.

Who is affected
- Directly: persons who vandalize or otherwise damage cemetery grounds and objects (subject to criminal prosecution), cemetery owners/operators, and heirs/descendants who may authorize repairs or removals.
- Indirectly: local law enforcement and prosecutors (investigation/prosecution timeframe altered), and communities relying on cemetery preservation.
- Fiscal impact: fiscal note indicates no material effect on State or local finances.

Practical effect
- The law broadens legal protection to include landscaping and other ground elements, deterring broader forms of vandalism.
- The revised statute of limitations reduces the risk that delayed discovery (for example, of damage in infrequently visited graveyards) will bar prosecution, by starting the limitation period when authorities knew or reasonably should have known of the offense.