REMOVING OR DISTURBING A DEAD BODY

38-1-102. Removing or disturbing body or other articles at scene of death unlawful.


It is unlawful for any person to touch, disturb, move or remove the body, clothing, 
personal effects, or weapons of, at or near any person who has died or reasonably 
appears to have died from wounds or injuries inflicted by means of a knife, pistol, 
gun, or other deadly weapon, or by other means of violence, drowning, suffocation, 
poison, or hanging, until the immediate notification and arrival on the death scene 
or place where such body is found, of the chief of police, or the chief of police's 
lawful representative, if the body is found in an incorporated town or city, or of 
the sheriff or the sheriff's lawful representative, if the body is found in the 
county outside the corporate limits of any incorporated town or city or of the 
district attorney general or a member of the district attorney general's staff 
of the judicial district in which such body is found.  

[Acts 1943, ch. 107, § 2; mod. C. Supp. 1950, § 5717.33 
(Williams, § 5717.36); T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 38-602.]


 
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