By: Hilbert H.B. No. 1809
73R6208 T
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the issuance of a subpoena.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Article 24.03, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-5 amended to read as follows:
1-6 Art. 24.03. Subpoena and Application Therefor. Before the
1-7 clerk or his deputy shall be required or permitted to issue a
1-8 subpoena in any felony case pending in any district or criminal
1-9 district court of this State of which he is clerk or deputy, the
1-10 defendant or his attorney or the State's attorney shall make
1-11 <written, sworn> application to such clerk for each witness
1-12 desired. Such application shall state the name of each witness
1-13 desired, the location and vocation, if known, and that the
1-14 testimony of said witness is material to the State or to the
1-15 defense. The application must be filed with the clerk and placed
1-16 with the papers in the cause or recorded with the number of the
1-17 cause and made available to both the State and for the defendant.
1-18 As far as is practical such clerk shall include in one subpoena the
1-19 names of all witnesses for the State and for defendant, and such
1-20 process shall show that the witnesses are summoned for the State or
1-21 for the defendant. When a witness has been served with a subpoena,
1-22 attached or placed under bail at the instance of either party in a
1-23 particular case, such execution of process shall inure to the
1-24 benefit of the opposite party in such case in the event such
2-1 opposite party desires to use such witness on the trial of the
2-2 case, provided that when a witness has once been served with a
2-3 subpoena, no further subpoena shall be issued for said witness.
2-4 SECTION 2. Article 24.04, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
2-5 amended to read as follows:
2-6 Art. 24.04. Service and return of subpoena. A subpoena is
2-7 served by reading the same in the hearing of the witness, by
2-8 electronic transmission with electronic acknowledgment from the
2-9 witness that the information has been received, or by delivering a
2-10 copy of the subpoena to the witness. The officer having the
2-11 subpoena shall make due return thereof, showing the time and manner
2-12 of service, if served, and if not served, he shall show in his
2-13 return the cause of his failure to serve it; and if the witness
2-14 could not be found, he shall state the diligence he used to find
2-15 him, and what information he has as to the whereabouts of the
2-16 witness.
2-17 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
2-18 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-19 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-20 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-21 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-22 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.