Editorial |
Lisa Helton
Unearthing the Dead: Protocol, Process, and Reverence You never know what – or who – lies beneath the surface. Imagine engaging in construction, landscaping, or other improvements to real property, and suddenly making a grim discovery: you have stumbled upon human remains. Tennessee law imposes obligations on one who accidentally disturbs a gravesite and prescribes the process to follow, should the cemetery need to be relocated. First, stop all activity at the site. With some exceptions for farming and surface collecting activity, Tenn. Code Ann. § 11-6-107(d) requires parties who encounter or accidentally disturb human remains to immediately cease disturbing the ground and contact the state coroner or medical examiner and local law enforcement. Failure to comply with these requirements is a Class A misdemeanor.1 Either the coroner or the medical examiner must examine the remains and, within five working days, determine whether the site merits further investigation.2 If the coroner or the medical examiner and law enforcement have no forensic or criminal concerns with regard to the site, then the coroner or the medical examiner shall notify the Tennessee Division of Archeology.3
Rebury the remains. After satisfying all notice requirements and alleviating any forensic or criminal concerns, Tenn. Code Ann. § 116-119 imposes, with some exceptions, a duty to rebury the remains within six months of the discovery. The statute details the manner in which the remains must be reburied, providing a mechanism for scientific analysis of the remains beforehand. Tenn. Code Ann. § 11-6-104 discusses the treatment of artifacts recovered at the gravesite, stating that these objects may become the property of the state of Tennessee and be placed under the custodianship of the Division of Archeology. These statutes apply to the inadvertent unearthing of human remains per Tenn. Code Ann. § 11-6107(d)(4). Petition for terminating a gravesite. The procedural complexity comes when a party finds it necessary to relocate the gravesite, such as in the case of the discovery of human remains during the construction of a residential neighborhood. Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 46-4-101 to -104 outline the procedure for terminating a site as a burial ground. The owner of the real property where the grave was discovered, certain governmental entities, or any other in(continued on page 29)
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NASHVILLE BAR JOURNAL | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2021
