By:  Brady                                            H.B. No. 2397
       73R6688 GWK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the payment of interest on unpaid restitution ordered
    1-3  by a court in a criminal case.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Article 42.12, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-6  amended by adding Section 11A to  read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 11A.  INTEREST ON UNPAID RESTITUTION.  A judge who
    1-8  requires a defendant to pay restitution under this article shall
    1-9  require the defendant to pay judgment interest on the amount of
   1-10  unpaid restitution, to accrue at the same rate as judgment interest
   1-11  in a civil case.
   1-12        SECTION 2.  The change in law made by  this Act applies only
   1-13  to interest on restitution imposed by a judge on conviction of an
   1-14  offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.  For
   1-15  purposes of this section, an offense is committed before the
   1-16  effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
   1-17  before that date.
   1-18        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   1-19        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.