By:  Goolsby                                            H.B. No. 69
       73R953 GWK-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the qualifications required of grand jurors.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article 19.08, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Art. 19.08.  Qualifications.  No person shall be selected or
    1-7  serve as a grand juror who does not possess the following
    1-8  qualifications:
    1-9              1.  He must be a citizen of the state, and of the
   1-10  county in which he is to serve, and be qualified under the
   1-11  Constitution and laws to vote in said county, provided that his
   1-12  failure to register to vote shall not be held to disqualify him in
   1-13  this instance;
   1-14              2.  He must be of sound mind and good moral character;
   1-15              3.  He must be able to read and write;
   1-16              4.  He must not have been granted deferred adjudication
   1-17  arising from the prosecution of any misdemeanor involving moral
   1-18  turpitude or any felony;
   1-19              5.  He must not have been convicted of any misdemeanor
   1-20  involving moral turpitude or any felony, regardless of whether the
   1-21  sentence was probated;
   1-22              6. <5.>  He must not be under indictment or other legal
   1-23  accusation for theft or of any felony;
   1-24              7. <6.>  He must not be related within the third degree
    2-1  of consanguinity or second degree of affinity, as determined under
    2-2  Article 5996h, Revised Statutes, to any person selected to serve or
    2-3  serving on the same grand jury;
    2-4              8. <7.>  He must not have served as grand juror or jury
    2-5  commissioner in the year before the date on which the term of court
    2-6  for which he has been selected as grand juror begins;
    2-7              9. <8.>  He must not be a complainant in any matter to
    2-8  be heard by the grand jury during the term of court for which he
    2-9  has been selected as a grand juror.
   2-10        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   2-11  only to grand juror selections made on or after the effective date
   2-12  of this Act.  For purposes of this section, a selection is made
   2-13  before the effective date of this Act if any element of the
   2-14  selection process occurs before the effective date.
   2-15        (b)  A selection made before the effective date of this Act
   2-16  is covered by the law in effect when the selection process began,
   2-17  and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-18        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-19        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.