by Pauline Vu, Stateline.org Staff Writer
As of the start of this month, it is a felony in Iowa to dismember a body to conceal a crime. New York City must stop sending undercover investigators to Virginia to buy guns in sting operations. And even Rip Van Winkle will have to show some ID if he wants to buy beer in Tennessee.
That’s because on July 1, the fiscal years of 46 states begin and several new laws took effect. So South Carolina gang members, Virginia teenage tanners and Illinois truants, take note: Life’s about to get a little tougher.
A few laws are borne out of events likely to inspire TV episodes of “Law & Order.” It now will be a felony to dismember or hide a body to conceal a crime in Iowa. The law closes a loophole that constricted police investigating a woman who helped her boyfriend cut up and hide the body of his murdered roommate. They could charge her only with lying to investigators and taking the victim’s belongings.
In Indiana, widows and widowers suspected of causing a spouse’s death no longer can be in charge of the funeral arrangements. That law came after Zachariah Melcher confessed to strangling his wife, Christian, and their 11-month-old son. Melcher, who is serving two life sentences, refused from his jail cell to allow Christian’s mother to bury the victims until he was able to confide the details of the crime to a family friend.
Friction with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg led to a new Virginia law that makes it a felony for anyone other than police to make straw purchases at gun shops, meaning buying a gun for someone who’s not allowed to buy one. The law is in response to sting operations ordered by Bloomberg, who sent undercover investigators to five states, including Virginia, to buy firearms after learning that 80 percent to 90 percent of guns used in crimes in New York City were purchased out of state. The city later sued 27 out-of-state gun dealers.
Smokers in five states will take a hit to their wallets as the tax on cigarettes increases: Alaska (another 20 cents), Connecticut (49 cents), Indiana (44 cents), New Hampshire (28 cents) and Tennessee (42 cents).
Some laws will affect every resident in a state. In Massachusetts, every Bay Stater now must buy health insurance in the nation’s most closely watched experiment at guaranteeing universal health coverage. Arkansans will see their grocery tax fall from 6 cents to 3 cents.
Georgia joins 11 other states in requiring that women seeking abortions be offered a chance to see the ultrasound of the fetus. Iowa researchers now can conduct embryonic stem cell research, after the Legislature repealed a ban, although human cloning remains illegal.
Every public classroom in Arizona will now have to display an American-made U.S. flag…. And Mississippi felons will meet stiffer punishments for using guns or weapons such as butcher knives or metallic knuckles while committing a crime.
