By:  Longoria                                         H.B. No. 1526
       73R5422 DRH-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the disqualification of a judge in a criminal case.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article 30.01, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Art. 30.01.  CAUSES WHICH DISQUALIFY.  (a)  No judge or
    1-7  justice of the peace shall sit in any case where he may be the
    1-8  party injured, or where he has been of counsel for the State or the
    1-9  accused, or where the accused or the party injured may be connected
   1-10  with him by consanguinity or affinity within the third degree, as
   1-11  determined under Article 5996h, Revised Statutes.
   1-12        (b)  In addition to the grounds listed in Subsection (a) of
   1-13  this article, a judge or justice of the peace shall disqualify
   1-14  himself in any case in which:
   1-15              (1)  his impartiality might reasonably be questioned;
   1-16              (2)  he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a
   1-17  party;
   1-18              (3)  he has personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary
   1-19  facts concerning the case; or
   1-20              (4)  his spouse or a person connected with him or his
   1-21  spouse within the first degree of consanguinity or affinity is an
   1-22  attorney involved in the case.
   1-23        (c)  If a party files a motion to disqualify under this
   1-24  article, and the judge or justice of the peace does not grant the
    2-1  motion, the judge or justice of the peace shall follow the same
    2-2  procedure in disposing of the motion as a motion for recusal or
    2-3  disqualification in a civil case under Rule 18a, Texas Rules of
    2-4  Civil Procedure.
    2-5        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
    2-6  only to the trial for an offense that commences on or after the
    2-7  effective date of this Act.
    2-8        (b)  The trial of an offense that commenced before the
    2-9  effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect when
   2-10  the trial began, and the former law is continued in effect for that
   2-11  purpose.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-13        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-15  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.