By De La Garza H.B. No. 288
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to criminal trespass on land where crops are grown.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 30.05(b)(2), Penal Code, is amended to
1-5 read as follows:
1-6 (2) "Notice" means:
1-7 (A) oral or written communication by the owner
1-8 or someone with apparent authority to act for the owner;
1-9 (B) fencing or other enclosure obviously
1-10 designed to exclude intruders or to contain livestock; <or>
1-11 (C) a sign or signs posted on the property or at
1-12 the entrance to the building, reasonably likely to come to the
1-13 attention of intruders, indicating that entry is forbidden; or
1-14 (D) the visible presence on the property of a
1-15 crop, other than timber, small grains, grasses, or cotton, that is
1-16 under cultivation, in the process of being harvested, or marketable
1-17 if harvested at the time of entry.
1-18 SECTION 2. (a) The change in law made by this Act applies
1-19 only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
1-20 Act.
1-21 (b) An offense committed before the effective date of this
1-22 Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
1-23 and the former law is continued in effect for this purpose. For
1-24 purposes of this section, an offense is committed before the
2-1 effective date if any element of the offense occurs before the
2-2 effective date.
2-3 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
2-4 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-5 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-6 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-7 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-8 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.