By:  Holzheauser                                      H.B. No. 2855
       73R8800 DAK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to certain minors who engage in criminal or delinquent
    1-3  conduct.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  CERTAIN RECORDS RELATING TO URBAN CRIME.  Files,
    1-6  records, photographs, and fingerprints of a person younger than 15
    1-7  years of age may be combined with those of persons older than 15
    1-8  years of age if the person is referred to the juvenile court for a
    1-9  felony listed in Section 53.045(a), Family Code, a criminal offense
   1-10  resulting from participation in a criminal street gang defined by
   1-11  Section 71.01, Penal Code, or the unlawful use, sale, or possession
   1-12  of a controlled substance, drug paraphernalia, or marihuana, as
   1-13  defined by Chapter 481, Health and Safety Code.
   1-14        SECTION 2.  PROSECUTION OF CRIMES BY CERTAIN PERSONS.
   1-15  Notwithstanding Title 3, Family Code, or Section 8.07, Penal Code,
   1-16  a person who is 15 years of age or older is not a child and conduct
   1-17  by the person may be prosecuted as a crime.
   1-18        SECTION 3.  JURISDICTION AND TRANSFER OF CERTAIN PERSONS.
   1-19  (a)  A juvenile court shall waive its jurisdiction and transfer any
   1-20  child 13 years of age or older to the appropriate district court or
   1-21  criminal district court if the child violates a penal law of the
   1-22  grade of felony and the child is unable to show good cause why the
   1-23  child should not be transferred.
   1-24        (b)  Notwithstanding Title 3, Family Code, and Chapter 61,
    2-1  Human Resources Code, a person eight years of age or older is under
    2-2  the jurisdiction of the juvenile courts and may be committed to the
    2-3  Texas Youth Commission.
    2-4        SECTION 4.  EMERGENCY.  The importance of this legislation
    2-5  and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-6  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-7  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-8  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-9  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-10  passage, and it is so enacted.