By:  Gallego                                          H.B. No. 2598
       73R6840 CLG-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the right of a crime victim or a representative of a
    1-3  crime victim to be present at certain criminal proceedings.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 56, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-6  amended by adding Article 56.021 to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 56.021.  COURT ATTENDANCE BY CRIME VICTIMS.  (a)  The
    1-8  victim of a criminal offense may be present in any courtroom
    1-9  proceeding relating to the offense.
   1-10        (b)  A judge may not remove a victim of a criminal offense
   1-11  from the courtroom during any portion of a hearing or trial
   1-12  relating to the offense.
   1-13        (c)  A victim of a criminal offense is exempt from any other
   1-14  law that requires a witness to be separated from any other
   1-15  witnesses or excluded from the courtroom during a criminal trial or
   1-16  hearing.
   1-17        (d)  If a victim of a criminal offense is not able to attend
   1-18  a hearing or the trial relating to the offense because of death,
   1-19  incapacity, or illness, the victim may designate a person to
   1-20  represent the victim at the hearing or trial.
   1-21        (e)  A court may not set aside, reverse, or remand a criminal
   1-22  conviction because a victim or the victim's representative fails to
   1-23  exercise a right granted by this article.
   1-24        (f)  It is not a cause or ground for an appeal of a criminal
    2-1  conviction that a victim or the victim's representative does not
    2-2  exercise a right granted by this article.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-8  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-9  passage, and it is so enacted.