1-1 By: Place (Senate Sponsor - Whitmire) H.B. No. 537
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House March 1, 1993;
1-3 March 2, 1993, read first time and referred to Committee on
1-4 Criminal Justice; May 18, 1993, reported favorably by the following
1-5 vote: Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 18, 1993, sent to printer.)
1-6 COMMITTEE VOTE
1-7 Yea Nay PNV Absent
1-8 Whitmire x
1-9 Brown x
1-10 Nelson x
1-11 Sibley x
1-12 Sims x
1-13 Turner x
1-14 West x
1-15 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-16 AN ACT
1-17 relating to the procedures for determining eligibility for parole
1-18 of a defendant serving a life sentence after conviction of a
1-19 capital felony.
1-20 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-21 SECTION 1. Section 7, Article 42.18, Code of Criminal
1-22 Procedure, is amended by amending Subsection (e) and adding
1-23 Subsection (g) to read as follows:
1-24 (e) Except as provided by Subsection (g) of this section, in
1-25 <In> matters of parole, release to mandatory supervision, and
1-26 revocation of parole or mandatory supervision, the board members
1-27 shall act in panels comprised of three persons in each panel. The
1-28 composition of the respective panels shall be designated by the
1-29 chairman of the board. A majority of each panel shall constitute a
1-30 quorum for the transaction of its business, and its decisions shall
1-31 be by majority vote.
1-32 (g) The board may grant parole to a person convicted of a
1-33 capital felony only on a two-thirds vote of the entire membership
1-34 of the board.
1-35 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
1-36 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-37 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-38 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-39 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-40 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-41 passage, and it is so enacted.
1-42 * * * * *
1-43 Austin,
1-44 Texas
1-45 May 18, 1993
1-46 Hon. Bob Bullock
1-47 President of the Senate
1-48 Sir:
1-49 We, your Committee on Criminal Justice to which was referred H.B.
1-50 No. 537, have had the same under consideration, and I am instructed
1-51 to report it back to the Senate with the recommendation that it do
1-52 pass and be printed.
1-53 Whitmire,
1-54 Chairman
1-55 * * * * *
1-56 WITNESSES
1-57 No witnesses appeared on H.B. No. 537.