2010 Mississippi Code
TITLE 97 - CRIMES
Chapter 17 - Crimes Against Property.
97-17-39 - Penalties for injuring, destroying or defacing certain cemetery property, public buildings, schools or churches, or property thereof.

§ 97-17-39. Penalties for injuring, destroying or defacing certain cemetery property, public buildings, schools or churches, or property thereof.
 

If any person, by any means whatever, shall wilfully or mischievously injure or destroy any of the burial vaults, urns, memorials, vases, foundations, bases or other similar items in a cemetery, or injure or destroy any of the work, materials, or furniture of any courthouse or jail, or other public building, or schoolhouse or church, or deface any of the walls or other parts thereof, or shall write, or make any drawings or character, or do any other act, either on or in said building or the walls thereof, or shall deface or injure the trees, fences, pavements, or soil, on the grounds belonging thereto, or an ornamental or shade tree on any public road or street leading thereto, such person, upon conviction, for such offense, shall be punished as follows: 
 

(a) If the damage caused by the destruction or defacement of such property has a value of less than Three Hundred Dollars ($300.00), any person who is convicted of such offense shall be fined not more than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) or be imprisoned in the county jail for not more than one (1) year, or both. 

(b) If the damage caused by the destruction or defacement of such property has a value equal to or exceeding Three Hundred Dollars ($300.00), any person who is convicted of such offense shall be fined not more than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) or be imprisoned in the State Penitentiary for up to five (5) years, or both. 
 

Sources: Codes, 1880, § 2978; 1892, § 989; 1906, § 1065; Hemingway's 1917, § 793; 1930, § 809; 1942, § 2035; Laws,  1989, ch. 451, § 1, eff from and after July 1, 1989.