By:  Horn                                              H.B. No. 426
       73R2810 DRH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the creation of a repeat offender penalty for certain
    1-3  obscenity offenses.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 43, Penal Code, is amended
    1-6  by adding Section 43.27 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 43.27.  REPEAT OFFENDERS.  (a)  If it is shown on the
    1-8  trial of an offense listed in Subsection (b) of this section that
    1-9  the defendant has previously been convicted two or more times of
   1-10  one or more offenses listed in Subsection (b) of this section, on
   1-11  conviction of the offense the defendant shall be punished at the
   1-12  next higher category of offense.
   1-13        (b)  This section applies to an offense under the following
   1-14  sections of the Penal Code:
   1-15              (1)  Section 43.23;
   1-16              (2)  Section 43.24;
   1-17              (3)  Section 43.25;
   1-18              (4)  Section 43.251; or
   1-19              (5)  Section 43.26.
   1-20        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   1-21  only to punishment for an offense committed on or after the
   1-22  effective date of this Act.  For purposes of this section, an
   1-23  offense is committed before the effective date of this Act if any
   1-24  element of the offense occurs before the effective date.
    2-1        (b)  Punishment for an offense committed before the effective
    2-2  date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense
    2-3  was committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that
    2-4  purpose.
    2-5        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
    2-6        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-7  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-8  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-9  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-10  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.