By Place                                               H.B. No. 261
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the requirement of corroboration of testimony in the
    1-3  prosecution of certain offenses.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Article 38.07, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 38.07.  TESTIMONY IN CORROBORATION OF VICTIM OF SEXUAL
    1-8  OFFENSE NOT REQUIRED.  Unless otherwise expressly required by the
    1-9  Constitution or statutes of the State of Texas or the Constitution
   1-10  and laws of the United States of America, a conviction for any
   1-11  offense under Chapter 21, Section 22.011, or Section 22.021, Penal
   1-12  Code, is supportable on the uncorroborated testimony of a victim of
   1-13  the offense, and the victim may not be considered or treated as an
   1-14  accomplice under Article 38.14 of this code <A conviction under
   1-15  Chapter 21, Section 22.011, or Section 22.021, Penal Code, is
   1-16  supportable on the uncorroborated testimony of the victim of the
   1-17  sexual offense if the victim informed any person, other than the
   1-18  defendant, of the alleged offense within six months after the date
   1-19  on which the offense is alleged to have occurred.  The requirement
   1-20  that the victim inform another person of an alleged offense does
   1-21  not apply if the victim was younger than 14 years of age at the
   1-22  time of the alleged offense.  The court shall instruct the jury
   1-23  that the time which lapsed between the alleged offense and the time
   1-24  it was reported shall be considered by the jury only for the
    2-1  purpose of assessing the weight to be given to the testimony of the
    2-2  victim>.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-8  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-9  passage, and it is so enacted.