Posted: | November 1, 2021 04:30 PM |
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From: | Representative Paul Schemel |
To: | All House members |
Subject: | Slayer Statute to Include Elder Abuse |
In the near future, I 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 in any way acquiring 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. Please join me in cosponsoring this legislation. |
Introduced as HB2754