Faking your own death for taunting purposes
<p>Suppose you cause it to be falsely reported that you have died, and your purpose is only to see your enemies gloating over your demise at your funeral and then being disappointed to learn that you are alive.  During the rite, you sit up in your coffin and sing an aria.  (Suppose the aria is not subject to copyright.)</p>

<p>Would there be legal consequences?</p>

<p>(A character in a certain novel claimed to have done this. I think he said the aria was from the opera <em>Jesse James</em>.  I don't think that opera exists in reality.)</p>

<p>I'll use Wisconsin as a jurisdiction.</p>

<p>If you file a false death certificate, that's a <a href="http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/document/statutes/69.24(1)(b)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">felony</a>. But you probably wouldn't go that far.</p>

<p>It could be disorderly conduct. In Wisconsin <a href="http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/document/statutes/947.01" rel="nofollow noreferrer">disorderly conduct</a> is described as follows:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Whoever, in a public or private place, engages in violent, abusive, indecent, profane, boisterous, unreasonably loud or otherwise disorderly conduct under circumstances in which the conduct tends to cause or provoke a disturbance is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor. </p>
</blockquote>

<p>There's also a <a href="http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/document/statutes/947.011" rel="nofollow noreferrer">statute</a> prohibiting "Disrupting a funeral or memorial service" but it won't apply in this case unless disorderly conduct applies. It would raise the penalty to a class A misdemeanor (or a class I felony if you somehow did it again after being convicted once.)</p>

<p>On the civil side, there could be an action for intentional infliction of emotional distress, either for the false report of your death, or for a "corpse" suddenly coming to life.  This kind of lawsuit requires "extreme and outrageous conduct", but if this isn't, I don't know what would be.</p>

death