By:  Moffat                                           H.B. No. 1640
       73R1113 CLG-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to murder committed in retaliation against certain persons
    1-3  as a capital offense.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 19.03(a), Penal Code, is amended to read
    1-6  as follows:
    1-7        (a)  A person commits an offense if he commits murder as
    1-8  defined under Section 19.02(a)(1) of this code and:
    1-9              (1)  the person murders a peace officer or fireman who
   1-10  is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the
   1-11  person knows is a peace officer or fireman;
   1-12              (2)  the person intentionally commits the murder in the
   1-13  course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, burglary,
   1-14  robbery, aggravated sexual assault, or arson;
   1-15              (3)  the person commits the murder for remuneration or
   1-16  the promise of remuneration or employs another to commit the murder
   1-17  for remuneration or the promise of remuneration;
   1-18              (4)  the person commits the murder while escaping or
   1-19  attempting to escape from a penal institution;
   1-20              (5)  the person, while incarcerated in a penal
   1-21  institution, murders another who is employed in the operation of
   1-22  the penal institution; <or>
   1-23              (6)  the person murders more than one person:
   1-24                    (A)  during the same criminal transaction; or
    2-1                    (B)  during different criminal transactions but
    2-2  the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of
    2-3  conduct; or
    2-4              (7)  the person commits the murder in retaliation for
    2-5  or on account of the service of another as a participant in a court
    2-6  proceeding, a witness, a prospective witness, an informant, or a
    2-7  person who has reported the occurrence of a crime.
    2-8        SECTION 2.  Section 19.03, Penal Code, is amended by adding
    2-9  Subsection (d) to read as follows:
   2-10        (d)  In this section, "informant" has the meaning assigned by
   2-11  Section 36.06 of this code.
   2-12        SECTION 3.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   2-13  only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
   2-14  Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
   2-15  the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
   2-16  before the effective date.
   2-17        (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
   2-18  Act is covered by the law in effect on the date the offense was
   2-19  committed, and the former law is continued in effect for this
   2-20  purpose.
   2-21        SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-22        SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-24  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
   2-25  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-26  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.