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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | October 12, 2023 02:06 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Liz Hanbidge and Rep. Paul Schemel |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Including Elder Abuse under the Slayer Statute |
| In the near future, we intend to introduce legislation which will expand the current Slayer Statute (Chapter 88 of the Decedents, Estates, and Fiduciaries Code) to include elder abusers. The Slayer Statute was enacted in 1972 to effectuate a policy that individuals should not profit from the wrong they commit. In the case of the Slayer Statute, slayers – i.e., persons participating as a principal or as an accessory before the fact in the willful and unlawful killing of another – are prohibited from acquiring any property or receiving any benefit as the result of the death of the decedent. Instead, the law sets out how the property or benefit will pass. Legislation expanding the law to include elder abusers – those convicted of elder abuse as defined in the proposed legislation – has been adopted in different forms in nine other states, including Maryland. The addition of these provisions will bar elder abusers from benefiting from the estate of the abused elder, unless the victim of the abuse knew of the conviction, but still ratified their intent to transfer property, benefit, or interest to the abuser, or if the victim and abuser reconciled following a conviction of elder abuse. Please join us in cosponsoring this legislation. |
Introduced as HB1760