By:  Dutton                                            H.B. No. 927
       73R2347 GWK-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to establishing a parole jury in a county with a
    1-3  population of 2.8 million or more to make determinations of parole
    1-4  eligibility for inmates serving sentences for felony offenses
    1-5  committed in the county.
    1-6        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-7        SECTION 1.  Chapter 42, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-8  amended by adding Article 42.181 to read as follows:
    1-9        Art. 42.181.  PAROLE JURY IN COUNTY WITH POPULATION OF 2.8
   1-10  MILLION
   1-11        Sec. 1.  Notwithstanding Section 8, Article 42.18, of this
   1-12  code, in a county with a population of 2.8 million or more a
   1-13  determination of parole eligibility for an inmate serving a
   1-14  sentence in the institutional division of the Texas Department of
   1-15  Criminal Justice for an offense committed in the county may be made
   1-16  only by a parole jury impanelled under this article.
   1-17        Sec. 2.  (a)  The district judges hearing criminal cases in a
   1-18  county described by Section 1 of this article may create any number
   1-19  of parole juries but in any event a sufficient number to make all
   1-20  determinations of parole eligibility required by Section 1 of this
   1-21  article.
   1-22        (b)  Parole juries shall meet as often as necessary, but the
   1-23  district judges shall ensure that at least one jury meets on each
   1-24  Saturday in the year.
    2-1        Sec. 3.  Members of a parole jury are selected and summoned
    2-2  in the same manner as are jurors in the trial of civil cases in the
    2-3  county.  A person may not be selected to serve as a member of a
    2-4  parole jury unless the person meets the qualifications for service
    2-5  as a grand juror under Article 19.08 of this code.
    2-6        Sec. 4.  The pardons and paroles division of the Texas
    2-7  Department of Criminal Justice shall provide a parole jury with all
    2-8  information required for the jury to make parole eligibility
    2-9  determinations.  A parole panel established under Section 7(e),
   2-10  Article 42.18, of this code may make recommendations to a parole
   2-11  jury, but the actual determination of parole eligibility is
   2-12  completely within the discretion of the jury.
   2-13        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   2-14  applies only to a determination of parole eligibility for a person
   2-15  serving a sentence for an offense committed on or after that date.
   2-16  For the purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
   2-17  September 1, 1993, if any element of the offense occurs before that
   2-18  date.
   2-19        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.