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House Bill 867 |
House Author: Allen, Ray |
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Effective: 9-1-05 |
Senate Sponsor: Shapiro |
House Bill 867 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to reorganize the statutes relating to the registration and supervision of sex offenders, including general provisions, registration and verification requirements and related notice, expiration of duty to register and general penalties for noncompliance, provisions applicable to certain workers and students, provisions applicable to persons subject to civil commitment, removal of registration information, exemption from registration for certain young adult sex offenders, and exemptions from registration for certain juveniles.
House Bill 867 creates a new subchapter to set up a judicial procedure by which certain sex offenders, after registering for the minimum amount of time required under federal law, may request early termination of their requirement to register as a sex offender. The bill provides that the state is entitled to appeal an order exempting certain young adult offenders and certain juvenile offenders from registration requirements, as well as to appeal an early termination order. Additionally, the bill standardizes certain registration and exemption requirements for juvenile offenders and adult offenders. The bill increases the membership of the risk assessment review committee of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from five to seven members by adding the executive director of the Sex Offender Treatment Council and a sex offender treatment provider.
House Bill 867 eliminates specific guidelines for newspaper notification relating to sex offenders residing in an area. The bill allows newspaper notification of the residence of high risk offenders at the discretion of the local law enforcement authority. It expands neighborhood notification relating to high risk sex offenders residing in the area by requiring notification by mail to business addresses as well as residential addresses, but excludes post office boxes.
House Bill 867 adds a conviction for the wholesale possession or promotion of certain obscene material depicting a child to the list of offenses requiring lifetime registration as a sex offender. The bill also requires a registrant, when changing residences, to report not less than weekly to the registrant's designated law enforcement authority until the new permanent address is established.
House Bill 867 requires the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to provide to each prosecuting attorney's office, on an annual basis, information relating to DPS's determination regarding whether an offense under the laws of another state or country are substantially similar to certain offenses in Texas. House Bill 867 adds a previous conviction for an attempt to commit the offense of failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements as a factor for enhancement of the punishment. The bill sets out a number of venues in which the offense of failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements may be prosecuted.
House Bill 867 amends the Government Code to provide that DPS must require a law enforcement agency serving as a sex offender's primary registration authority to take from each registrant a DNA specimen, to preserve the specimen, and to maintain a record of the collection, if the registrant has not provided a specimen under other law. The bill also prohibits the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission from providing sexual performance enhancing medication under certain federal and state programs to a person required to register as a sex offender.