Every person imprisoned in the adult correctional institutions for life shall, with respect to all rights of property, to the bond of matrimony and to all civil rights and relations of any nature whatsoever, be deemed to be dead in all respects, as if his or her natural death had taken place at the time of conviction. However, the bond of matrimony shall not be dissolved, nor shall the rights to property or other rights of the husband or wife of the imprisoned person be terminated or impaired, except on the entry of a lawfully obtained decree for divorce.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 13-6-1
Life prisoners deemed civilly dead
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Doe v. Webster (1979)
Most recently applied in 175 W. Va. 72 - Craigo v. Marshall (June 1985)
G.L. 1909, ch. 354, § 59; P.L. 1915, ch. 1261, § 1; G.L. 1923, ch. 407, § 59; G.L. 1938, ch. 624, § 1; impl. am
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Rhode Island General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Rhode Island statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.