H.B. No. 537
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the procedures for determining eligibility for parole
    1-3  of a defendant serving a life sentence after conviction of a
    1-4  capital felony.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Section 7, Article 42.18, Code of Criminal
    1-7  Procedure, is amended by amending Subsection (e) and adding
    1-8  Subsection (g) to read as follows:
    1-9        (e)  Except as provided by Subsection (g) of this section, in
   1-10  <In> matters of parole, release to mandatory supervision, and
   1-11  revocation of parole or mandatory supervision, the board members
   1-12  shall act in panels comprised of three persons in each panel.  The
   1-13  composition of the respective panels shall be designated by the
   1-14  chairman of the board.  A majority of each panel shall constitute a
   1-15  quorum for the transaction of its business, and its decisions shall
   1-16  be by majority vote.
   1-17        (g)  The board may grant parole to a person convicted of a
   1-18  capital felony  only on a two-thirds vote of the entire membership
   1-19  of the board.
   1-20        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-21  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-22  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-23  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-24  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-1  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-2  passage, and it is so enacted.