By: Place H.B. No. 1994
73R6395 GWK-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the admissibility of evidence at the punishment stage
1-3 of a criminal trial.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 3(a), Article 37.07, Code of Criminal
1-6 Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
1-7 (a) Regardless of the plea and whether the punishment be
1-8 assessed by the judge or the jury, evidence may<, as permitted by
1-9 the Rules of Evidence,> be offered by the state and the defendant
1-10 as to any matter the court deems relevant to sentencing, including
1-11 but not limited to the prior criminal record of the defendant, his
1-12 general reputation, <and> his character, an opinion regarding his
1-13 character, the circumstances of the offense for which he is being
1-14 tried, and, notwithstanding Rules 404 and 405, Texas Rules of
1-15 Criminal Evidence, any other evidence of an extraneous crime or bad
1-16 act that is shown by clear and convincing evidence to have been
1-17 committed by the defendant or for which he could be held criminally
1-18 responsible, regardless of whether he has previously been charged
1-19 with or finally convicted of the crime or act. <The term prior
1-20 criminal record means a final conviction in a court of record, or a
1-21 probated or suspended sentence that has occurred prior to trial, or
1-22 any final conviction material to the offense charged.> A court may
1-23 consider as a factor in mitigating punishment the conduct of a
1-24 defendant while participating in a program under Article 17.40 or
2-1 17.42(a) of this code as a condition of release on bail.
2-2 Additionally, notwithstanding Rule 609(d), Texas Rules of Criminal
2-3 Evidence, evidence may be offered by the state and the defendant of
2-4 an adjudication of delinquency based on a violation by the
2-5 defendant of a penal law of the grade of felony unless:
2-6 (1) the adjudication is based on conduct committed
2-7 more than five years before the commission of the offense for which
2-8 the person is being tried; and
2-9 (2) in the five years preceding the date of the
2-10 commission of the offense for which the person is being tried, the
2-11 person did not engage in conduct for which the person has been
2-12 adjudicated as a delinquent child or a child in need of supervision
2-13 and did not commit an offense for which the person has been
2-14 convicted.
2-15 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
2-16 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-17 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-18 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-19 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-20 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-21 passage, and it is so enacted.