By:  Brown, West                                       S.B. No. 110
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the peremptory challenge of a juror in a criminal case
    1-2  based on race.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article 35.261, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Art. 35.261.  PEREMPTORY CHALLENGES BASED ON RACE
    1-7  PROHIBITED.  (a)  After the parties have delivered their lists to
    1-8  the clerk under Article 35.26 of this code and before the court has
    1-9  impanelled the jury, the attorney representing the state or the
   1-10  defendant may request the court to disallow a peremptory challenge
   1-11  or dismiss the array and call a new array in the case.  The court
   1-12  shall grant the motion of the moving party <of a defendant> for
   1-13  disallowing the use of a peremptory challenge or dismissal of the
   1-14  array if the court determines <that the defendant is a member of an
   1-15  identifiable racial group,> that the opposing party <attorney
   1-16  representing the state> exercised the peremptory challenge
   1-17  <challenges> for the purpose of excluding a person <persons> from
   1-18  the jury on the basis of the person's <their> race<,> and that the
   1-19  moving party <defendant> has offered evidence of relevant facts
   1-20  that tends <tend> to show that the challenge <challenges> made by
   1-21  the opposing party was <attorney representing the state were> made
   1-22  for reasons based on race.  If the moving party <defendant>
   1-23  establishes a prima facie case, the burden then shifts to the
   1-24  opposing party <attorney representing the state> to give a racially
    2-1  neutral explanation for the challenge <challenges>.  The burden of
    2-2  persuasion remains with the moving party <defendant> to establish
    2-3  purposeful discrimination.
    2-4        (b)  If the court determines that the opposing party
    2-5  <attorney representing the state> challenged a prospective juror
    2-6  <jurors> on the basis of race, the court shall either disallow the
    2-7  peremptory challenge or call a new array in the case.
    2-8        (c)  If the court disallows the use of a peremptory challenge
    2-9  under this article, the party making the peremptory challenge may
   2-10  not exercise another peremptory challenge in place of the
   2-11  disallowed challenge.
   2-12        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   2-13  only to a criminal trial that commences on or after the effective
   2-14  date of this Act.
   2-15        (b)  A trial that commences before the effective date of this
   2-16  Act is covered by the law in effect when the trial commenced, and
   2-17  the former law is continued in effect for this purpose.
   2-18        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-19        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.