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House Bill 1302 |
House Author: Clardy et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-13 |
Senate Sponsor: Nichols |
House Bill 1302 enacts Justin's Law and amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to require a judge, in the trial of a sexually violent offense, to make an affirmative finding of fact and enter the finding in the case judgment on determination that the victim or intended victim was younger than 14 years of age at the time of the offense and to require a judge who places a defendant charged with a sexually violent offense on deferred adjudication community supervision to make an affirmative finding of fact and file a statement of that finding with the case papers on such a determination. The bill prohibits a person subject to sex offender registration for committing a sexually violent offense for which such an affirmative finding is entered from providing or offering to provide or operating or offering to operate for compensation certain transportation services, amusement ride services, or any type of service in another person's residence while unsupervised. The bill requires a local law enforcement authority that provides to a person subject to those prohibitions a sex offender registration verification form to include with that form a statement summarizing the types of employment that are prohibited for that person and requires a penal institution official, before releasing a person who will be subject to sex offender registration on release, to inform that person of those prohibitions with respect to a sexually violent offense involving a victim younger than 14 years of age occurring on or after September 1, 2013.
House Bill 1302 amends the Penal Code to expand the offenses for which a conviction results in punishment by life imprisonment without parole if it is shown on trial that the defendant has previously been finally convicted of specified offenses to include certain sexually violent offenses committed on or after the defendant's 18th birthday. The bill includes those sexually violent offenses among the specified previous conviction offenses that render such punishment.