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.