By:  Gallego                                           H.B. No. 321
       73R294 GWK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the number of jurors in a misdemeanor case tried in
    1-3  district court.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Article 33.01, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 33.01.  JURY; WHEN OF TWELVE, WHEN OF SIX.  In the
    1-8  district court, the jury shall consist of twelve qualified jurors
    1-9  in a felony trial and six qualified jurors in a misdemeanor trial;
   1-10  in the county court and inferior courts, the jury shall consist of
   1-11  six qualified jurors.
   1-12        SECTION 2.  Article 33.011(a), Code of Criminal Procedure, is
   1-13  amended to read as follows:
   1-14        (a)  In felony trials in district courts, the judge may
   1-15  direct that not more than four jurors in addition to the regular
   1-16  jury be called and impaneled to sit as alternate jurors.  In
   1-17  misdemeanor trials in district courts and in county courts, the
   1-18  judge may direct that not more than two jurors in addition to the
   1-19  regular jury be called and impaneled to sit as alternate jurors.
   1-20        SECTION 3.  Article 37.02, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
   1-21  repealed.
   1-22        SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect on the date on which the
   1-23  constitutional amendment proposed by __J.R. No. ___, 73rd
   1-24  Legislature, Regular Session, 1993, takes effect.  If that
    2-1  amendment is not approved by the voters, this Act has no effect.
    2-2        SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-4  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
    2-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.