Louisiana Revised Statutes 8:663 – Collection, analysis, and reburial of exposed human skeletal remains
Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes 8:663
- Board: means the Louisiana Cemetery Board. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 8:1
- Burial: means the placement of human remains in a grave. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 8:1
- Cemetery: means a place used or intended to be used for the interment of the human dead and, to the extent allowed in accordance with this Title, pet remains. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 8:1
- Cemetery authority: means any person, firm, corporation, limited liability company, trustee, partnership, association, or municipality owning, operating, controlling, or managing a cemetery or holding lands within this state for interment purposes. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 8:1
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Corporation: means any corporation or limited liability company which is authorized by its articles or an operating agreement to conduct any one or more of the businesses of a cemetery. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 8:1
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Grave: means a space of ground in a cemetery, used or intended to be used, for burial. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 8:1
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Owner: means a person to whom the cemetery authority has transferred full title to or the right of use of or interment in any cemetery space and who appears as the title holder in the official records of the cemetery authority. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 8:1
- Person: means an individual, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, joint venture, association, trust, or any other legal entity. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 8:1
A. The legislature hereby finds that exposed human skeletal remains in cemeteries, while harmless from a public health perspective, are nonetheless disrespectful to those interred in the cemetery and are susceptible to being looted. Accordingly, the legislature finds that the collection and reburial of these remains, in a controlled, scientific, and respectful manner, is in the best interests of the public.
B. This Section shall apply only to municipal cemeteries as defined in La. Rev. Stat. 8:1 and to cemeteries that do not currently hold a certificate of authority in accordance with this Title.
C. The words and phrases in this Section have the meanings given to them in Chapter 10-A of this Title unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
D.(1) Upon the identification of human skeletal remains and burial items exposed to the surface in a cemetery subject to this Section, the Louisiana Cemetery Board or the attorney general shall make a reasonable attempt to contact the cemetery and demand that such human skeletal remains and burial items be secured and re-interred.
(2) Upon a failure or refusal of the cemetery authority to comply with a demand made in accordance with Paragraph (1) of this Subsection and with the express written permission of the cemetery authority, the attorney general or students and instructors of institutions of higher education from the disciplines of anthropology, archaeology, biology, and mortuary science may undertake the systematic collection of human skeletal remains and burial items that are exposed to the surface and are at risk of being looted from cemeteries within the state.
(3) If written permission of the relevant cemetery authority cannot be reasonably obtained and the exposed human skeletal remains are at risk of being looted, the attorney general may apply to the district court in which the cemetery is located for an order to safeguard the human skeletal remains. Upon the filing of such a petition, the district court shall set the matter for hearing in the manner provided in Code of Civil Procedure Article 3601, et seq.
(4) The attorney general may collect the exposed human skeletal remains or may delegate that authority to a qualified party pursuant to this Subsection.
E. The following procedures and protocols shall be followed in undertaking any collection program as provided in this Section:
(1) Prior to any collection activity notification, proof of compliance with this Section shall be provided to the Louisiana Cemetery Board, the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, division of archaeology, and the attorney general, in writing.
(2) Any collection activities shall be conducted under the direction of the attorney general or a full-time faculty member from an accredited college or university in the state of Louisiana.
(3) Any collection activities undertaken pursuant to this Section shall be supervised by a person with a minimum education level of a master’s degree in one of the enumerated fields of study in Paragraph (D)(2) of this Section.
(4) All human skeletal remains and burial items collected from the surface of a cemetery pursuant to this Section shall be collected in the following manner:
(a) A minimum of two digital photographs of the collected item shall be taken prior to its collection that will allow for a visual demonstration of its original location.
(b) A handheld global positioning system (GPS) device shall be used to document, with as much specificity as the technology permits, the geographic location of the item prior to its collection.
(c) Each item collected shall be separately bagged.
(d) Each collection bag shall be labeled and shall contain a label noting, at a minimum, the date of collection, the name of the cemetery, the GPS coordinates of the item, and the name of the collector.
(5) The following identification procedures shall be undertaken following collection of any human skeletal remains or burial items pursuant to this Section:
(a) There shall be affixed to the item a label sufficient to correlate the item to the documentation collected pursuant to Paragraph (4) of this Subsection.
(b) To the extent possible, all standard metric and non-metric measurements and observations of the human skeletal remains shall be documented pursuant to the Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains or other comparable subsequent set of data collection standards.
(c) All human skeletal remains collected pursuant to this Section shall be stored in a secure location at the collecting institution until such time as the cemetery authority undertakes reburials pursuant to this Section.
(d) Copies of any and all documents and photographs generated from the collection activities permitted by this Section shall be lodged with the cemetery authority and the office of the attorney general at the time of re-interment of the human skeletal remains and burial items. These documents and photographs shall constitute public records, subject to the limitations set forth in La. Rev. Stat. 41:1609 and La. Rev. Stat. 44:4(44).
F. The following protocols shall be the responsibility of the cemetery authority:
(1) The cemetery authority shall re-inter, at its own cost, the human skeletal remains and burial items collected pursuant to this Section.
(2) If analysis leads to the positive identification of any human skeletal remains, such remains shall be re-interred by the cemetery authority, at its own cost, in the grave space associated with the identified individual.
(3) In the event that no cemetery authority is identifiable, such human skeletal remains shall be curated by the collecting entity in a manner that conforms to the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, division of archaeology curation guidelines. Such human skeletal remains may be reinterred in an unused portion of the subject cemetery pursuant to an order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
G. There shall be no liability on the part of, and no action for damages against, any of the following:
(1) Any institution, or its agents, employees, or students, for any action undertaken or performed by such person pursuant to this Section when such person is acting without malice and in the reasonable belief that the action taken by him is warranted.
(2) Any cemetery owner, cemetery authority, or its agents or employees, for any action undertaken or performed by such person pursuant to this Section when such person is acting without malice and in the reasonable belief that the action taken by him is warranted.
(3) Any person, committee, association, organization, firm, or corporation providing information to an institution, cemetery owner, or cemetery authority conducting or permitting collection activities pursuant to this Section, its agents, employees, or students when such a person, committee, association, organization, firm, or corporation providing such information without malice and in the reasonable belief that such information is accurate shall not be held, by reason of having provided such information, to be liable in damages under any law of the state or any political subdivision thereof.
(4) The Louisiana Cemetery Board, the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, division of archaeology, and the attorney general, and their agents or employees, shall not be liable in damages under any law of the state or any political subdivision for their role in administering portions of this Section.
Acts 2012, No. 631, §1; Acts 2022, No. 574, §1.