By:  Greenberg                                          H.B. No. 92
       73R1242 GWK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the eligibility for release on parole of a prisoner
    1-3  serving a life sentence for a capital felony.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 8(b)(2), Article 42.18, Code of Criminal
    1-6  Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
    1-7              (2)  A <If a> prisoner <is> serving a life sentence for
    1-8  a capital felony<, the prisoner> is not eligible for <release on>
    1-9  parole <until the actual calendar time the prisoner has served,
   1-10  without consideration of good conduct time, equals 35 calendar
   1-11  years>.
   1-12        SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act to Section
   1-13  8(b)(2), Article 42.18, Code of Criminal Procedure, applies only to
   1-14  a defendant convicted of a capital offense committed on or after
   1-15  the effective date of this Act.  For the purposes of this section,
   1-16  an offense is committed before the effective date of this Act if
   1-17  any element of the offense occurs before the effective date.  A
   1-18  defendant convicted of a capital offense committed before the
   1-19  effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the
   1-20  offense was committed, and the former law is continued in effect
   1-21  for this purpose.
   1-22        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   1-23        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-1  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
    2-2  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-3  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.